globalmappingofpleasure
globalmappingofpleasure
globalmappingofpleasure
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
A directory of organizations, programmes, media<br />
and people who eroticize safer sex<br />
2nd edition<br />
1
Acknowledgements<br />
This publication is a celebration of the many people<br />
who have fun, sexy and erotic sex that is also safer<br />
sex – their creativity and innovation were the original<br />
inspiration for The Pleasure Project and continue to<br />
influence our work.<br />
The Global Mapping of Pleasure would not exist<br />
without the hard work, commitment and generosity<br />
of the many people who are profiled within it,<br />
who shared their time and ideas with us, and who<br />
continue to change people’s lives with their sexpositive<br />
approach to safer sex.<br />
The Realising Rights Research Programme<br />
Consortium (www.realising-rights.org) generously<br />
funded this research. We would like to thank<br />
the Director, Hilary Standing, of the Institute of<br />
Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, for<br />
facilitating this grant. We would also like to thank<br />
Susie Jolly of the IDS Sexuality and Development<br />
Programme for her ongoing support for this project<br />
and many other aspects of our work.<br />
We especially want to thank our volunteer researchers:<br />
Arushi Singh (IPPF South Asia, India); Juliet McEachran<br />
(Australia); and Lauren Chauvin (Independent<br />
Consultant, UK) for their help and dedication. And<br />
Lucy Atkin of Colibrí Consulting (USA and Mexico)<br />
and Hesperian Publishing, who not only helped with<br />
research, but provided feedback, advice and support<br />
throughout this project.<br />
Finally, Marten Sims deserves a huge round<br />
of applause for his fantastic design work and<br />
consultancy.<br />
Written and edited by Wendy Knerr<br />
Editorial and content advisor Anne Philpott<br />
Designed by Marten Sims<br />
Cover image and similar images<br />
Model Rii<br />
Photographer OhJo<br />
Production House Overdose<br />
For disability photos<br />
(Roxy) Credit Jon Edge<br />
(Wheelchair) Credit Rod MacDonald<br />
© The Pleasure Project, 2008 www.thepleasureproject.org<br />
The Realising Rights Research Programme Consortium is funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) under<br />
grant HD43. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of DFID.<br />
The Pleasure Project is an initiative of Taking Action for Sexual Health (TASH)<br />
Portions of this publication may be reproduced for use in education or advocacy with the permission of The Pleasure Project.<br />
Please email info@thepleasureproject.org.<br />
2
preface<br />
The Global Mapping of Pleasure is a collection of practical, conceptual<br />
and inspiring case studies of individuals and organizations around the<br />
world who aim to empower people by eroticizing safer sex and making<br />
sex education sexy. It is intended for a wide audience, including:<br />
• sex educators<br />
• sexual and reproductive health organizations<br />
• medical personnel and those working in reproductive health clinics<br />
• people and organizations focused on HIV prevention, and HIV and AIDS treatment and care<br />
• researchers and academics<br />
• donors and governments<br />
• people and companies that produce erotic media, such as porn films and magazines, and those<br />
working in mainstream media<br />
• everyone who is tired of hearing the same-old prevention messages – that sex is dangerous, something<br />
to be feared, and that safer sex is un-sexy<br />
• anyone looking for a new, exciting and sexy approach to safer sex and sexual health.<br />
The Global Mapping of Pleasure describes 45 innovative projects from six continents. Although it is not an<br />
exhaustive listing of erotic safer-sex initiatives, it does provide a wide range of examples from many countries and<br />
for many target groups of how safer sex and sex education can be promoted in a positive way by considering the<br />
role of pleasure and desire in sexual behaviour.<br />
How to use The Global Mapping of Pleasure<br />
This document is intended to inspire and inform people who are working in sexuality education, sexual health<br />
and erotic media, and to support sex-positive safer-sex and HIV prevention interventions. To begin, you<br />
might find it useful to go straight to the detailed Table of Contents on pages 5-6, where the case studies and<br />
organizations profiled within are listed according to the primary type of intervention or media used, including:<br />
• campaigns and communications<br />
• popular media and porn<br />
• social marketing<br />
• websites<br />
• sex education programmes, trainings and workshops<br />
• counselling and health services<br />
• advocacy and support.<br />
While we hope you will find useful information in most of the case studies, if you are primarily involved with<br />
one area or type of media – such as sexuality education workshops or social marketing – then you can go<br />
straight to that section to see how safer sex has been eroticized through that medium or intervention, and<br />
to read some concrete examples which might be relevant and inspiring for your own work.<br />
If you would like to read an overview of the case studies and some general observations about eroticizing<br />
safer sex, then turn to the Introduction on pages 7–14. This section includes the background and genesis<br />
of The Global Mapping of Pleasure; the methodology used; limitations; and observations about eroticizing<br />
safer sex based on this collection.<br />
3
In some cases, you might find an idea or tip which you can apply to your own work immediately. In other<br />
cases, it may be helpful to get a broader understanding of the context in which a programme has taken<br />
place – often, sex-positive and erotic safer-sex interventions are not isolated activities or projects, but are<br />
part of more comprehensive, holistic or ongoing sexuality education or life skills programmes. Moreover,<br />
many factors can influence the implementation of, support for and success of an intervention. While we<br />
have tried to include as much of this information as possible, this document is an overview of erotic safersex<br />
interventions and has limited space for each case study. If you want to do further research, you can<br />
email or write to the contact persons listed at the top of each case study to get more information.<br />
It is our hope that everyone who wishes to redress the sex-negative,<br />
fear- and disease-based approaches that dominate the sex,<br />
sexual health and HIV discourses – and to promote the health,<br />
empowerment and well-being of all people – will find useful<br />
information in this publication for making safer sex more attractive...<br />
and a whole lot sexier.<br />
4
contents<br />
Introduction: the case for erotic safer-sex interventions<br />
Campaigns and Communications<br />
A daily dose of erotic sexual health – Agenda Erótica Feminina (Mexico)..........................................................16<br />
Tips for good lovin’ for young gay men – Victorian AIDS Council (Australia).......................................................16<br />
Great sex during (and after) Carnival – Brazil National STD and AIDS Programme (Brazil)..................................17<br />
Masturbate-a-thon! – Good Vibrations (USA), Center for Sex and Culture (USA) and<br />
Marie Stopes International (UK).................................................................................................................................18<br />
A resource library with a difference – Naz Foundation International (India)........................................................19<br />
(Nearly) naked (safer sex) dance party for students – Oberlin University Sexual Information Center (USA).....19<br />
Getting sexy for gay and bisexual men – PACE (UK)..............................................................................................20<br />
Pleasure economics for male sex workers – The Samabhavana Trust (India)......................................................21<br />
Sensual suggestions for male-to-male masseurs – SAATHII (India)........................................................................22<br />
Popular Media and Porn<br />
Sex blogger who says safe sex is kinky – Selina Fire (USA).....................................................................................24<br />
Showing you how to ‘do the business’ – Anna Span, Easy on the Eye Productions (UK).....................................25<br />
Safe Sex is Hot Sex campaign – Chi Chi LaRue (USA).............................................................................................26<br />
Steamy lesbian safer-sex porn – Fatale Media (USA).............................................................................................27<br />
Hot sex instruction for horny heteros – Modern Loving I and II (UK).......................................................................28<br />
‘Cliterature’ and sexpertise in a mainstream magazine – Scarlet (UK).................................................................29<br />
Social Marketing<br />
ProSexHot condom marketing – BENFAM (Brazil).....................................................................................................31<br />
Earth-shaking condom vibes – DKT International (global).................................................................................32-33<br />
Fun sex with female condoms – The Female Health Company (global)..............................................................34<br />
Your passport to ‘The Republic of Pleasure’ – Hindustan Latex Limited and<br />
Family Planning Promotion Trust (India)....................................................................................................................35<br />
Pinky Bits the Sex Fairy meets the big ‘O’ – Marie Stopes International Australia (Australia).........................36-37<br />
The latest erotic accessory (female condoms!) – Society for Women and AIDS in Africa<br />
(Senegal and Ghana)................................................................................................................................................37<br />
Lube and condoms for slippery and safe sex – Population Services International Cambodia (Cambodia)....38<br />
5
Websites<br />
Secrets to great sex for teens – Coalition for Positive Sexuality (USA)....................................................................40<br />
How lesbians can ‘love her in latex’ – Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT (Australia)................................41<br />
‘Hard facts for dirty buggers’ – Terrence Higgins Trust (UK)................................................................................42-43<br />
Helping gay men ‘get off’ on tea towels – Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men’s Health Centre (Australia)........44<br />
Sex Education Programmes, Trainings and Workshops<br />
Helping husbands become better lovers – Community Life Project (Nigeria).................................................46-47<br />
The fine art (and facts) of pleasure proficiency – CARE Cambodia (Cambodia)...............................................48<br />
Competitive condom wearing and other sex play for gay men – The Humsafar Trust (India)............................49<br />
Sex and pleasure counselling in faith-based communities – Empowerment Concepts (Mozambique).....50-51<br />
Pleasure, empowerment … and multiple orgasms! – INCRESE (Nigeria)..........................................................52-53<br />
The Kama Sutra for sex workers – Institute of International Social Development (India).....................................54<br />
‘Many positions with one’, The Kama Sutra for sex workers – The People’s Health Organisation (India)...........54<br />
Sex workers share tips for safe sex and client satisfaction – Making Sex Work Safe workshops (Asia/Pacific).........55<br />
Promoting an ‘erotic and protected life’ – MEXFAM (Mexico)................................................................................56<br />
Alternative pleasures for men who have sex with men – The Naz Foundation (India) Trust and<br />
Naz Foundation International (India)........................................................................................................................57<br />
Sex-positive sex education (with aubergine dildos!) – Nirantar Centre for Gender and Education.................58<br />
Super sex-positive support for sex workers – Sonagachi Project/<br />
Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (India)......................................................................................................59<br />
Putting the sexy back into safer sex – The Pleasure Project (global)................................................................60-61<br />
Oral, vaginal, anal … and verbal? Communication for lovers – Sensoa (Belgium)........................................62-63<br />
Talking the language of lust – X:Talk Project (UK).....................................................................................................64<br />
Counselling And Health Services<br />
Don’t forget the pleasure – Planned Parenthood of New York City (USA).............................................................66<br />
Sexy tips for HIV-positive women – Positively Women (UK).....................................................................................67<br />
The sexy ‘dick check’ and other tips for sex workers – St. James Infirmary (USA)...........................................68-69<br />
The pleasure hotline – TARSHI and the South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality (Asia)...........70<br />
Scorching hot condoms and lube for male-to-male sex – Silom Community Clinic,<br />
Thailand Ministry of Health and US Centers for Disease Control (Thailand)..........................................................71<br />
Advocacy and Support<br />
‘The blooming lotus flower’ … campaigning for female condoms –<br />
Community Development Services (Sri Lanka)........................................................................................................73<br />
Helping the development industry get over its obsession with bad sex – Institute of Development Studies<br />
Sexuality and Development Programme (UK and global).....................................................................................74<br />
Annex: List of interviewees<br />
6
introduction:<br />
the case for<br />
erotic safer-sex<br />
interventions<br />
7
Sex is the most common way people contract HIV<br />
worldwide, yet frank discussion and information about<br />
how to have sex and stay healthy (much less enjoy<br />
yourself or give pleasure to others) are largely missing<br />
from health resources and HIV prevention campaigns.<br />
At the same time, sexually explicit and mainstream<br />
media, along with moralistic institutions and political<br />
figures, are the loudest voices telling people how<br />
and what kind of sex they should (or should not) be<br />
having. This usually boils down to a narrow list of sexual<br />
practices reserved for the young, the healthy, the<br />
married and the heterosexual among us, and rarely<br />
involves safer-sex practices, such as condom use or<br />
non-penetrative sex, except for abstinence.<br />
On the racier side of things, most sexually explicit<br />
media also present a narrow view of who has (or<br />
should be having) sex, and very rarely feature<br />
condoms or non-penetrative sex as something<br />
normal and sexy. Add to this the dominant fear- and<br />
disease-based messages about sex and safer sex<br />
coming from the HIV prevention and health sectors,<br />
and it is not surprising that few people find safer sex<br />
appealing, and even fewer have the information<br />
they need to pursue their own or their partners’ sexual<br />
pleasure without risking their health.<br />
There is an enormous gap between people’s desires<br />
and sexual behaviours, and the information they<br />
have access to about how to act on those desires<br />
in a healthy way. The health and HIV prevention<br />
sectors have a great opportunity to fill that gap with<br />
information about safer sex which reflects people’s<br />
real sex lives and desires. For this to happen, those of<br />
us in the health world have to face the erotophobia 1<br />
that plagues much of our work. Why are so many<br />
people and organizations who want to improve<br />
sexual health and well-being afraid to talk about<br />
or create programmes to address people’s desires<br />
and real sex lives? And if ‘sex sells’ everything from<br />
toothpaste to cars, why are we not mobilizing the<br />
power of sex and desire to promote safer sex as a<br />
force for good?<br />
These are key questions for the health sector as we<br />
mark a quarter century of the AIDS pandemic; but if<br />
we wait to find the answers and for a paradigm shift<br />
to occur, many more people will have been harmed.<br />
In the meantime, we can explore and learn from the<br />
ways that people are using the power of pleasure and<br />
eroticism to promote safer sex and well-being. This can<br />
become a basis from which to explore what works<br />
with different populations, and how we might adapt<br />
existing approaches to meet people’s real needs.<br />
Background<br />
The Global Mapping of Pleasure was first published<br />
in 2004, with the support of CARE International/<br />
CARE Cambodia, as a training tool for sexual health<br />
educators in Cambodia. It was researched and<br />
written on a shoestring, in just ten days, yet has been<br />
widely referenced in the media and health sector 2 .<br />
To date, it is the only resource available that explores<br />
pleasure-focused approaches to safer sex worldwide.<br />
As The Pleasure Project has worked to promote and<br />
advocate for a more sex-positive, erotic approach<br />
to safer sex and HIV prevention over the past<br />
four years, we realized the need to update The<br />
Global Mapping to include the many pioneering<br />
organizations and individuals we have met since<br />
that first edition was published. With support<br />
and funding from the Realising Rights Research<br />
Programme Consortium, we were able to widen our<br />
search for organizations that eroticize safer sex, and<br />
to produce this updated edition.<br />
1<br />
Erotophobia is a psychology term that describes sexuality on a personality scale. Erotophobes score high on the end of the scale characterized<br />
by expressions of guilt and fear about sex. Erotophobes are less likely to talk about sex, have more negative reactions to sexually explicit material,<br />
and have sex less frequently and with fewer partners over time. In contrast, erotophiles score high on the opposite end of the scale. Erotophilia is<br />
characterized by expressing less guilt about sex, talking about sex more openly, and holding more positive attitudes toward sexually explicit material.<br />
8
The methodology<br />
The first phase of this research involved identifying<br />
potential projects and resources through enquiries<br />
to personal contacts and colleagues, via web<br />
research, mass emails to targeted sexual health,<br />
HIV prevention and The Pleasure Project mailing<br />
lists, and through the contacts of our volunteers and<br />
supporters around the world. This generated a list of<br />
more than 100 organizations which:<br />
• promote safer-sex practices and<br />
• have primary messages (e.g. promotional<br />
materials, packaging, web pages, documents,<br />
etc.) that treat sex/safer sex in a positive or<br />
empowering way and avoid focusing on<br />
disease or negative outcomes of sex.<br />
In the second stage of the research, we narrowed<br />
the list by focusing on:<br />
• projects and resource which eroticize 3 safer sex,<br />
and make safer sex sexy and<br />
• which are practical, real-world examples<br />
of tools and methods for eroticizing safer<br />
sex (rather than hypothetical, theoretical or<br />
conceptual examples of eroticizing safer sex).<br />
Our researchers – based in Australia, India, the UK<br />
and USA – conducted face-to-face, telephone or<br />
email interviews with key contacts, usually project<br />
co-ordinators or heads of organizations, whenever<br />
possible (see list of interviewees in the Annex).<br />
In situations where an interview was not possible<br />
due to time or resource restrictions, we gathered<br />
information from online sources, conference<br />
proceedings and personal observations.<br />
Throughout our research, we deliberately chose not<br />
to define ‘erotic’ and ‘sexy’. Instead, we allowed<br />
interviewees to explain how eroticism and sexiness<br />
were manifest in their projects, based on the<br />
sensibilities and contexts of the target groups with<br />
which they were working, or we looked for evidence of<br />
context-specific eroticism/sexiness in project resources.<br />
Limitations<br />
This publication is not an exhaustive list of projects<br />
and resources which eroticize safer sex; it is a<br />
sampling which could be reasonably documented<br />
within the time available and with consideration of<br />
budget and human resources. If the reader knows<br />
of a resource which appears to fit the criteria for The<br />
Global Mapping but is not included, it does not imply<br />
a rejection of that project, and in fact we would be<br />
2<br />
For example, Eldis (www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/hiv-and-aids/prevention/contraceptives&id=21469&type=Document);<br />
IDS Bulletin (www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ids/idsb/2006/00000037/00000005/art00016);<br />
Inter Press News (http://ipsnews.net/text/news.asp?idnews=40288);<br />
AIDS Portal (www.aidsportal.org/Articles.aspx?org=762 );<br />
Communicating Health Risks to the Public by Dawn Hillier (Gower Press, 2006);<br />
Development (http://www.palgrave-journals.com/development/journal/v49/n1/full/1100208a.html).<br />
3<br />
According to Scott-Sheldon (Scott-Sheldon, L.A.J. & Johnson, B.T. (2006) Eroticizing creates safer sex: A research synthesis, The Journal of Primary<br />
Prevention, Vol. 27, No. 6, Nov. 2006.): “Eroticization was defined as any sexually arousing, exciting, or pleasurable material that was used to<br />
promote safe sexual behaviour.”<br />
9
pleased to hear about the project so that it can be<br />
considered for future publications.<br />
In some cases, it was necessary to make an<br />
informed judgment about whether or not a project<br />
or resource ‘eroticizes safer sex’, as there is no<br />
agreed or universal definition of what is erotic and<br />
sexy. This is highly subjective, so we consulted with a<br />
range of people, including those who are profiled in<br />
The Global Mapping, to come to these conclusions.<br />
All of the individuals interviewed for this publication,<br />
and the researchers involved, were asked the same<br />
set of questions. However, the amount or detail of<br />
information they chose to provide, their availability<br />
and communication links, the interviewers’ style of<br />
questioning (some of the interviewees were known<br />
to us personally whereas other interviews were<br />
conducted by telephone with strangers speaking<br />
for the first time) as well as the nature of their work,<br />
mean that the case studies are not uniform or<br />
standardized. This is particularly true with regard<br />
to discussion of the challenges and obstacles<br />
individuals and organizations may face in their work.<br />
Some case studies provide detailed information<br />
about challenges, while others do not address this<br />
issue at all, but it should not be assumed that those<br />
which do not mention challenges do not face any.<br />
Resource constraints meant that we were only able<br />
to follow up with some respondents via email and<br />
telephone. In some cases, this meant we did not<br />
receive responses from some potentially interesting<br />
programmes, and we do not have as much detail<br />
on some as we would like.<br />
Observations and key themes<br />
from the research<br />
It was obvious throughout the case studies that there<br />
was a depth of thinking on the part of programmers<br />
and project leaders about sexuality, the nature<br />
of desire and people’s many motivations for their<br />
sexual behaviour. This highlights a key point about<br />
eroticism and sexual pleasure: they are highly<br />
subjective and there is no single definition for what<br />
is sexy or erotic. This is as true among a seemingly<br />
homogenous group of people as it is across genders,<br />
countries, cultures and sexual orientations. A number<br />
of the people we interviewed pointed out that<br />
targeting interventions carefully – by getting to know<br />
the audience through surveys, focus groups, face-toface<br />
interactions or personal experience – is crucial.<br />
This includes knowing what turns people on, what<br />
motivates their sexual behaviour, what types of media<br />
or intervention they may best respond to, where<br />
they hang out, what their values are – in short: really<br />
listening to what the target audience is saying, and<br />
understanding what ‘non-judgmental’ really means<br />
when it comes to discussing intimate details of desire.<br />
Creativity was also a common theme among the<br />
programmes and resources, especially in terms of<br />
communicating erotic safer-sex messages – from<br />
erotic safer-sex tea towels for gay men in Australia,<br />
to dildo-making contests for nuns who do marriage<br />
counselling in Mozambique, to training modules<br />
about seduction for couples in Nigeria. These<br />
creative and novel methods of communication<br />
were, for the most part, deliberate – not just novelty<br />
for novelty’s sake. The sexy safer-sex tea towels, for<br />
example, were taken home from clubs and parties<br />
and became conversation pieces; the dildo-making<br />
was a specific technique to help the participants<br />
understand the realities of sex in a fun way; and<br />
making seduction a key part of the curriculum for<br />
couples gave participants another way to relate<br />
to each other, often replacing violence or other<br />
unhealthy forms of communication.<br />
During the course of this project, we also discovered<br />
that, when assessing what distinguishes an<br />
erotic safer-sex intervention from one that is, for<br />
example, ‘sex-positive’ but not erotic, is the level<br />
of detail about sex acts, safer-sex methods and/<br />
or behaviours, particularly how to negotiate safer<br />
sex in a sexy way. This ‘how to do it’, rather than<br />
just ‘you should do it’ or ‘you can do it’, approach<br />
is, therefore, a key element of many of the projects<br />
profiled in The Global Mapping. This does not imply<br />
that non-erotic ‘sex-positive’ interventions are less<br />
important, effective or innovative. It just reflects<br />
the focus and purpose of this research, which is to<br />
document erotic safer-sex interventions specifically.<br />
Ideally, in doing this project we were also looking for<br />
evidence of the effectiveness of the programmes<br />
and resources profiled. This was harder to come by<br />
– very few controlled trials or systematic monitoring<br />
and evaluation systems have been used to measure<br />
the effectiveness of projects which eroticize safer<br />
sex. The Pleasure Project is currently researching<br />
“Promoting sexual health and rights through<br />
pleasure: a literature review”, to be published<br />
in May 2008 with support from the Women’s<br />
Empowerment Research Programme Consortium.<br />
The review will aim to increase understanding of<br />
the existing research related to pleasure promotion<br />
and eroticization of safer sex, and to examine the<br />
contexts in which pleasure promotion may be<br />
effective or ineffective, and to what degree. The<br />
literature review will be a follow-up to the Lancet<br />
article, “Promoting protection and pleasure:<br />
amplifying the effectiveness of barriers against<br />
sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy”. 4<br />
Key questions for discussion<br />
4<br />
Philpott, A., Knerr, W. & Maher, D. Promoting protection and pleasure: amplifying the effectiveness of barriers against sexually transmitted<br />
infections and pregnancy, The Lancet, Volume 368, Issue 9551, Pages 2028–2031.<br />
10
sex, what clients find sexy – and, therefore, helps<br />
to form the basis for pleasure-focused interventions<br />
(e.g. the work of St. James Infirmary in the USA,<br />
page 68, and Empowerment Concepts, page 50).<br />
Some practitioners (e.g. The Pleasure Project, page 60,<br />
and The Sambhavana Trust, page 21) designed<br />
pleasure-focused and eroticization interventions<br />
by documenting the ideas and experiences of<br />
the groups they work with and sharing those ideas<br />
with other groups through workshops and learning<br />
materials, while others (Making Sex Work Safe<br />
workshops, page 55) created an environment where<br />
workshop participants could to teach each other<br />
based on their relative strengths.<br />
How does erotophobia in the<br />
AIDS world affect the ability<br />
to encourage safer sex? Why<br />
has pleasure been ignored in<br />
discussions of safer sex and<br />
prevention?<br />
At the outset of this project, we identified several<br />
questions and issues which we hoped to explore during<br />
the course of the research, and which formed the<br />
basis of the questions for the interviews. The following<br />
section addresses these questions by outlining<br />
possible themes and commonalities, identifying case<br />
studies that could provide answers, or, in some cases,<br />
indicating the need for further exploration.<br />
How do practitioners motivate<br />
safer sex through pleasure, and<br />
how do we ‘get our pitch right’ for<br />
marketing condoms as pleasureenhancement<br />
tools?<br />
This was one of the overarching questions The<br />
Global Mapping aimed to answer, and every<br />
case study includes ideas for how this can be<br />
done or attempted. Overwhelmingly, people and<br />
organizations have motivated safer sex through<br />
pleasure by having a deep understanding of their<br />
target audience and uncovering what is (or is not)<br />
sexy and erotic for that audience. This was often<br />
achieved through surveys and focus groups (e.g.<br />
SAATHII’s work with men who have sex with men,<br />
and men who sell sex, in West Bengal, page 22;<br />
the Victorian AIDS Council’s website for gay men<br />
in Australia, page 44). In some cases, what was<br />
sexually pleasurable was considered common<br />
knowledge or assumed. In others, the first step was<br />
to open up dialogue among people and help them<br />
to become more comfortable talking about sex and<br />
what they find pleasurable. It is through this process<br />
that practitioners have uncovered what their target<br />
audience defines as sexy – or in the case of selling<br />
These are questions we asked many of the<br />
interviewees to get a sense of the challenges<br />
they face in pursuing what could be seen as an<br />
unorthodox or taboo way of promoting safer sex. For<br />
example, when Jasmir Thakur of the Samabhavana<br />
Trust, India, was asked if the HIV world is erotophobic.<br />
his response was: “110% – they just miss obvious<br />
opportunities, like when a person gets a negative<br />
HIV result, this is an ideal opportunity to counsel<br />
about pleasure and safer sex – but they don’t …”<br />
Other people interviewed for this research indicated<br />
that creating an effective resource or intervention<br />
requires getting specific about the sex their target<br />
audience is having – or wishes to have – and about<br />
how to have that sex safely. This means getting<br />
specific about ‘how to do it’ – using language more<br />
commonly used with sexual partners rather than<br />
words from the medical or health promotion world<br />
– and this treads on taboo territory in most cultures<br />
and contexts. This was particularly relevant in the<br />
interviews with organizations that work with sex<br />
workers (e.g. St. James Infirmary, page 68; Making<br />
Sex Work Safe workshops in Asia and the Pacific,<br />
page 55; X:Talk Project, London, page 64), and with<br />
men who have sex with men (e.g. Terrence Higgins<br />
Trust Hard Cell website, page 42). This could reflect<br />
stigma related to discussing homosexuality and<br />
sex work in most cultures, along with a wide range<br />
of other factors. It is also worth nothing that the<br />
discourse on HIV prevention, family planning and<br />
safer sex has emerged primarily from the medical<br />
world, where the idea of sex for pleasure is rarely<br />
discussed. A wider discussion of erotophobia is<br />
beyond the scope of this publication but important<br />
to consider when implementing erotic and pleasurefocused<br />
safer-sex interventions.<br />
11
Has pleasure been used as a<br />
tool for empowerment, especially<br />
for women? And can the sexual<br />
health sector promote women’s<br />
right to pleasure as an HIV<br />
prevention tactic and means<br />
for empowerment?<br />
Many respondents indicated that by eroticizing<br />
safer sex they aimed, at least in part, to empower<br />
people to be able to negotiate safer sex. Dorothy<br />
Aken’ Ova of INCRESE in Nigeria, however, sees<br />
empowerment as key to her work. She commented:<br />
“If this delicate, taboo thing – sexual pleasure<br />
– could be negotiated by women, than almost<br />
anything can be negotiated” (page 52). Aken’ Ova<br />
and others believe that enabling women to pursue<br />
their own pleasure, and making women’s pleasure<br />
a priority, can empower women in other areas of<br />
their lives. In projects where sex workers are given<br />
training to be able to better provide pleasure to<br />
their clients while lowering health risks, this involves<br />
improving their existing skills through, for example,<br />
language training. The aim is economic and,<br />
therefore, social empowerment (e.g. the Institute<br />
of International Social Development and People’s<br />
Health Organisation Kama Sutra education in India,<br />
pages 54; The Sambhavana Trust, page 21; and<br />
X:Talk Project, page 64).<br />
In which contexts are erotic safer<br />
sex interventions most useful and<br />
effective? Which groups of people<br />
do they appeal to most?<br />
married couples (21%), and sex workers (19%). Other<br />
interventions were designed to target the general<br />
population (13%), young people (10%) and women<br />
(8%), while only 2% (one example) was aimed<br />
specifically at addressing the safer-sex needs of<br />
people living with HIV. However, some projects would<br />
inevitably reach and be of use to people living with<br />
HIV, even if this was not the specific or named target<br />
group. (Please note that some examples target<br />
more than one audience – for example, male-tomale<br />
sex workers.) As before, these statistics are<br />
not an indication of which groups erotic safer-sex<br />
interventions appeal to most. However, they do<br />
provide an interesting basis for further analysis of<br />
which groups might be deemed most appropriate<br />
for receiving erotic safer-sex interventions and<br />
why these groups might be seen as appropriate<br />
compared to other groups. (For example: do<br />
programmers and funders see sex workers and men<br />
who have sex with men as more appropriate target<br />
groups for erotic safer sex?)<br />
Two of the social marketing campaigns we profiled<br />
reported greater-than-expected sales figures for<br />
male and female condoms that were marketed<br />
using pleasure-focused messages (e.g. DKT social<br />
marketing campaign in Brazil, page 32, and<br />
Population Services International Cambodia’s<br />
Number One Plus Condom/Lube social marketing,<br />
page 38). And some programme managers and<br />
co-ordinators reported anecdotal evidence of<br />
effectiveness in the form of positive feedback from<br />
participants and beneficiaries. However, there were<br />
no reports of systematic or scientific monitoring or<br />
evaluation of interventions based on their erotic or<br />
sex-positive components.<br />
In this edition of The Global Mapping of Pleasure,<br />
more examples (33%) come from Asia (including<br />
South and Southeast Asia) than anywhere else,<br />
with Europe and the UK accounting for 21%, North<br />
America 16%, Africa 12%, Australia 9% and Latin<br />
America 9%. (These are approximate numbers, as<br />
some projects and organizations work in multiple<br />
regions.) However, these figures are not an indication<br />
of where erotic safer-sex interventions are most<br />
useful or effective. They simply reflect the examples<br />
we were able to find within strict budget, human<br />
resource, language and time restrictions. Since erotic<br />
safer-sex work is rarely documented in project reports<br />
or analyses, identifying interventions is dependent<br />
on word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations,<br />
making a systematic analysis problematic.<br />
Among the erotic safer-sex interventions we found,<br />
the largest number (27%) were aimed at lesbian,<br />
gay, bisexual and transgender people, with most<br />
for men who have sex with men. The next most<br />
common target groups were heterosexual and/or<br />
12
In other studies, The Pleasure Project has found<br />
strong evidence that integrating an eroticization<br />
component into safer-sex interventions can reduce<br />
sexual risk behaviour 5 6 ; however, the research that<br />
is available is limited in focus, and more research is<br />
needed. “Promoting sexual health and rights through<br />
pleasure: a literature review”, to be published in May<br />
2008 with support from the Women’s Empowerment<br />
Research Programme Consortium, will provide a<br />
basis for additional research on this topic.<br />
What are some of the personal,<br />
institutional and funding barriers to<br />
inclusion of pleasure and eroticism<br />
in campaigns and projects?<br />
Issues around eroticism and sex are often the<br />
subject of controversy, and applying eroticism to<br />
safer sex and sexual health is no exception. Among<br />
the respondents who discussed barriers to this<br />
work, challenges were noted both from external<br />
forces and within organizations. For example, a<br />
few respondents noted that sex educators and<br />
counsellors may have personal barriers to being<br />
open-minded and comfortable discussing some<br />
forms of eroticism, desire and sex (e.g. INCRESE,<br />
page 52, and The Samabhavana Trust, page 21).<br />
External challenges were mentioned more often. For<br />
example, Hindustan Latex Limited’s (HLL) vibrating<br />
condom, Crezendo, was banned in one state in<br />
India because it was considered a sex toy in the<br />
guise of a condom 7 . Work with and for men who<br />
have sex with men in India also encountered major<br />
challenges since anal sex is illegal (e.g. SAATHII,<br />
page 22, and Naz Foundation, page 19).<br />
Anna Span (page 25) explained the difficulties<br />
experienced by porn actors with using condoms on<br />
set, and with marketing and selling porn films which<br />
feature what is considered ‘too many’ condoms.<br />
Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) in the UK, which created<br />
the Hard Cell website for safer same-sex BDSM<br />
(page 42), discussed the fact that ‘pressure’ groups,<br />
which often have religious affiliations, constantly<br />
monitor its publications, “looking for something<br />
to get ‘scandalized’ over” and to publicly lobby<br />
against THT’s work, although this was not only<br />
related to projects with an erotic element. THT<br />
also said that the mainstream press has caused<br />
problems in the past for agencies doing supposedly<br />
‘controversial’ sexual health promotion for gay<br />
men. “A lot of people won’t understand why we’re<br />
doing it, including a lot of gay men who may not<br />
approve,” said Richard Scholey from THT. Some<br />
country offices of social marketing company DKT<br />
International mentioned that they tread carefully to<br />
avoid censorship of or backlash against campaigns,<br />
by avoiding promoting products through certain<br />
mainstream media (e.g. they have avoided<br />
television advertising in Indonesia).<br />
On the other hand, negative press<br />
was noted by DKT and another<br />
social marketing organization, HLL,<br />
as a positive, in that it generated<br />
publicity for their products.<br />
In contrast, Susie Jolly of the Institute for<br />
Development Studies Sexuality and Development<br />
Programme, said that, while there have been some<br />
surprised reactions from donors, working on sexuality<br />
and pleasure has not been more problematic for<br />
their UK-based organization. The same was true for<br />
Sensoa in Belgium, with its ‘Good Lovers’ and ‘Talk<br />
about sex!’ campaigns for young people: they<br />
expected a backlash, but there was none, partly<br />
because they made the health intentions of their<br />
provocative campaign very clear from the outset.<br />
And Ngozi Iwere of the Community Life Project (CLP)<br />
in Nigeria, which works with couples in a faith-based<br />
5<br />
For example, see: Scott-Sheldon, L.A.J. & Johnson, B.T. (2006). Eroticizing creates safer sex: A research synthesis. Journal of Primary Prevention,<br />
Vol. 27, No. 6, Nov. 2006, 619–640.6 Philpott, A., Knerr, W. & Maher, D. Promoting protection and pleasure: amplifying the effectiveness of barriers<br />
against sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy, The Lancet, Volume 368, Issue 9551, Pages 2028–2031.<br />
6<br />
Philpott, A., Knerr, W. & Maher, D. Promoting protection and pleasure: amplifying the effectiveness of barriers against sexually transmitted<br />
infections and pregnancy, The Lancet, Volume 368, Issue 9551, Pages 2028–2031.<br />
7<br />
http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2007/08/crezendo-passport-to-republic-of.html<br />
13
counsellors can often get people talking about sex<br />
and pleasure by telling them how to increase the<br />
pleasure for their partners (e.g. The Sambhavana<br />
Trust, page 21, Hindustan Latex Family Planning<br />
Promotion Trust’s Velvet female condom campaign<br />
page 35, and TARSHI page 70).<br />
setting, said, “There has been no resistance within<br />
the churches because you can find a lot of things<br />
within the church to support pleasure in marriage...<br />
The success of this work is the whole package – it<br />
succeeds because it is in the broader framework<br />
of relationships.” However, these are just a few<br />
experiences that practitioners have had in relation<br />
to the challenges of eroticizing safer sex.<br />
How do sexual health counsellors<br />
and educators get people talking<br />
about sex and pleasure?<br />
The Pleasure Project’s own experience of getting<br />
people ‘talking dirty’ or discussing sexual issues is<br />
echoed in many of the examples from this research.<br />
For example, our trainings with CARE Cambodia’s<br />
sexual health educators (page 48) and with<br />
counsellors from Positively Women (page 67), as<br />
well as St James Infirmary’s experience counselling<br />
sex workers in the USA (page 68), indicate that<br />
creating a safe and non-judgmental space is an<br />
essential first step to get people comfortable talking<br />
about sex and pleasure. The CARE Cambodia<br />
training and the work of CLP in Nigeria highlight the<br />
importance respondents put on finding out what<br />
beneficiaries really want to know – in Cambodia,<br />
we found they wanted more basic information<br />
about sexual response, while CLP’s experience<br />
was that men, in particular, wanted more than just<br />
information about HIV, they wanted to know about<br />
sex, drugs and, especially, impotency, which was a<br />
motivation for their extramarital sexual relationships.<br />
Some respondents also said that educators and<br />
Working either with single-gender groups or<br />
with mixed groups was noted as an important<br />
consideration by Empowerment Concepts in the`ir<br />
work with faith-based communities in Mozambique<br />
and in The Pleasure Project’s training for CARE<br />
Cambodia, where we facilitated more single-gender<br />
sessions at the request of participants. The need to<br />
engage men in discussions and activities related to<br />
sexuality, safer sex and pleasure – rather than only<br />
targeting and including women – was particularly<br />
noted by INCRESE and CLP in Nigeria. Simply asking<br />
the right questions was a notable factor in the work<br />
of St James Infirmary, where asking sex workers the<br />
novel question “What do you enjoy about your<br />
work?”, allowed sex workers the space to talk about<br />
what they found pleasurable. This is often taboo,<br />
and for St. James Infirmary it was an invitation to indepth<br />
and deeply personal conversations with sex<br />
workers about how to do their jobs while practising<br />
safer sex, both with clients and regular partners.<br />
Finally, putting eroticization of safer sex and pleasure<br />
into the wider context of life and relationships is<br />
a crucial factor in some work, particularly with<br />
couples and faith-based communities (e.g. CLP and<br />
Empowerment Concepts), but also with men who<br />
have sex with men (Naz Foundation (India), page 19).<br />
Throughout this research, we were excited by<br />
the level of creativity and depth of thought that<br />
sex educators and programmers are using to<br />
connect desire with safer sex – often in small or<br />
sparsely funded programmes, and in conservative<br />
environments where discussing sex at all is<br />
highly taboo. We hope this document reflects<br />
the pioneering spirit and brave efforts of these<br />
organizations, which are blazing a trail for sexpositive<br />
work around the world. It is now crucial<br />
to follow up this research by building a more<br />
comprehensive evidence base for sex-positive safersex<br />
work. We must identify where and with whom<br />
pleasure is an effective tool to promote safer sex,<br />
and scale up sex-positive programmes so they reach<br />
more people and begin to reduce the ill health and<br />
adverse consequences of unsafe sex worldwide.<br />
14
I might undress for a living but I love to dress up for<br />
sex! The ultimate tools of seduction might include silky<br />
seamed stockings, dangerously high stilettos, and<br />
perhaps a tightly-laced corset... but always a nice<br />
snug condom. Safe sex is sexy.”<br />
Dita Von Teese, burlesque performer and celebrity, in support of the MAC cosmetics<br />
Viva Glam project to support the MAC AIDS Fund (www.macaidsfund.org)<br />
campaigns and<br />
communications<br />
15
Agenda Erótica Feminina<br />
A daily dose of erotic sexual health<br />
Contact Olivia Ortiz<br />
Geners, Instituto de Género y Salud Sexual, S.C.<br />
Mexico, D.F.<br />
Mexico<br />
Tel +52 5862 4104<br />
Email oliviaortizra@gmail.com or<br />
genesigss@gmail.com<br />
The Women’s Erotic Agenda is a stylish diary/<br />
datebook featuring erotic photographs of women<br />
and men, and erotic and empowering poetry. It also<br />
includes an annex entitled “To enjoy responsibly”,<br />
which provides detailed information about sexual<br />
and reproductive health, safer sex, and contact<br />
information for sexual and reproductive health and<br />
human rights organizations throughout Mexico.<br />
Now in its eighth edition, the Agenda seeks to<br />
promote a sensual and pleasurable view of women’s<br />
bodies and to encourage a responsible, well-informed<br />
and satisfying enjoyment of sexuality. It is sold with<br />
a condom attached – in past years, this was a<br />
male condom, and in 2008 a female condom –<br />
to encourage safer sex. It is unique in providing<br />
information about sexual health and safer sex in a<br />
resource that people can use every day, and in a<br />
format that is accessible, interesting and, most of<br />
all, erotic. It is a daily reminder that sexuality and the<br />
human body can be exciting, enticing and beautiful,<br />
but that being sexually responsible – for the sake of<br />
our own health and our partners’ – is vital.<br />
Victorian AIDS Council<br />
Tips for good lovin’ for young gay men<br />
Contact Mike Kennedy<br />
6 Claremont St<br />
South Yarra<br />
Victoria 3141<br />
Australia<br />
Tel +61 9865 6700<br />
Email mike_kennedy@vicaids.asn.au<br />
‘Out there! A sexual health guide for young gay<br />
men’ was published by the Australasian College of<br />
Sexual Health Physicians, Australian Federation of<br />
AIDS Organisations and the Victorian AIDS Council.<br />
‘Out there!’ uses common language, detailed<br />
descriptions, and sexy photos to help instruct readers<br />
on how to have better, safer sex. It was informed<br />
and written by the gay community, and includes<br />
sections such as early sexual feelings, encounters,<br />
identity issues, coming out, HIV and STIs, and finetuning<br />
sexual techniques. There are a variety of<br />
safer-sex books in the mainstream publishing industry<br />
which include sexual techniques for safer sex, but<br />
this one is unusual in having been published by a<br />
public health body.<br />
16
Brazil National STD and AIDS Programme<br />
Great sex during (and after) Carnival<br />
Ministry of Health<br />
SEPN 511 – Bloco C<br />
70.750-543, Brasília – DF<br />
Brazil<br />
Tel +55 61 3448-8000<br />
Web www.aids.gov.br<br />
Brazil has been one of the first countries in the world<br />
to stop associating AIDS with death in its publicity<br />
campaigns. Instead of following the trends of the time,<br />
Brazil decided in its campaigns to make respect for<br />
human rights paramount as well as giving people<br />
accurate information, bolstering self-confidence<br />
and providing incentives for condom use.”<br />
Brazil National STD and AIDS Programme<br />
Brazil’s National STD and AIDS Programme has<br />
designed provocative and controversial HIV<br />
prevention campaigns over the last 20 years,<br />
particularly around Carnival. These campaigns have<br />
been aimed at the general population, for specific<br />
events (such as Carnival), and to groups such as men<br />
who have sex with men, teenage girls and sex workers.<br />
Its 2008 campaign for Carnival features the cheeky<br />
slogan “Be good in bed, use a condom” and is<br />
aimed particularly at young women. The Programme<br />
also promoted a second message, for people living<br />
with HIV: “Whether or not you live with AIDS, use a<br />
condom and ensure your peace of mind”. A key<br />
element of its approach is targeting its campaigns. For<br />
example, the 2008 campaign was a response to the<br />
increasingly evident vulnerability of women to HIV. As<br />
such, the Programme created promotional materials<br />
that appeal to young women, in this case temporary<br />
tattoos and headbands.<br />
“Over the 20 years since the epidemic first started,”<br />
states the Programme’s official website, “Brazil has<br />
been one of the first countries in the world to stop<br />
associating AIDS with death in its publicity campaigns.<br />
Instead of following the trends of the time, Brazil<br />
decided in its campaigns to make respect for human<br />
rights paramount as well as giving people accurate<br />
information, bolstering self-confidence and providing<br />
incentives for condom use.”<br />
According to the Programme’s website: “When<br />
putting a campaign together, a number of underlying<br />
factors have always been taken into account. These<br />
include assembling the correct epidemiological data,<br />
examining closely the various behavioural studies<br />
available, and encouraging groups and individuals<br />
from civil society to participate actively in the effort.”<br />
In 2007, the slogan was “Use condoms and be happy<br />
during and after the celebrations”. According to<br />
the Programme’s website: “The idea is that carnival<br />
revellers can keep their peace of mind after the<br />
celebrations by using condoms if they happen to have<br />
sex, thus ensuring their happiness and pleasure.”<br />
These campaigns have been promoted through<br />
explicit posters and other materials, such as the<br />
“Safe sex is hot sex: you are not immune” poster,<br />
showing naked men and women embracing in<br />
provocative poses on a beach. And the organization<br />
has produced short films and radio spots, harnessing<br />
the power of celebrity spokespeople. And they have<br />
partnered with companies, such as Coca Cola, to<br />
distribute posters and leaflets. Carnival revellers often<br />
find self-adhesive posters affixed to walls in the toilets<br />
of bars and restaurants in large cities.<br />
17
Good Vibrations, Center for Sex and<br />
Culture, Marie Stopes International, and<br />
others – Masturbate-a-thon!<br />
Center for Sex and Culture<br />
www.masturbate-a-thon.com<br />
Marie Stopes International<br />
www.masturbate-a-thon.co.uk<br />
The Masturbate-a-thon is about masturbation for a<br />
reason, and we want everyone who attends to help<br />
us send the message that masturbation is a positive,<br />
completely safe and erotic alternative, good for you,<br />
and just plain pleasurable!”<br />
from the Marie Stopes International Masturbate-a-thon website, www.masturbate-a-thon.co.uk<br />
The first Masturbate-a-thon is credited to the US-based<br />
sex toy shop Good Vibrations (www.goodvibes.com)<br />
and to positive sexuality guru Carol Queen, who runs<br />
the Center for Sex and Culture. In 2006, Marie Stopes<br />
International (MSI) brought the Masturbate-a-thon to<br />
Europe, hosting, according to the event’s website,<br />
“...a charity event, intended to encourage people to<br />
explore safer sex, talk about masturbation and lift the<br />
taboos that still surround the subject, by coming to a<br />
public place and coming in a public place!”<br />
Masturbate-a-thons are public education events<br />
intended to increase the use of self pleasure as a<br />
strategy for safer sex and to de-stigmatize self-love.<br />
During the past six years, Masturbate-a-thons have<br />
raised over US$ 25,000 for women’s health initiatives<br />
and HIV prevention, education and treatment<br />
organizations, and has contributed to debates about<br />
safer sex and alternative safe methods of sexual<br />
expression in the US, in the face of harsh conservative<br />
opposition. The UK event was modelled on the US<br />
events, with specific ground rules, such as an 18-orolder<br />
age requirement, inclusion of people from all<br />
genders and sexual orientations, and prohibition of<br />
group and couple sex. There were different rooms at<br />
the event, for example, a comfort area, a womenonly<br />
area, a men-only area and a mixed area. And<br />
organizers advised masturbators to “spend some<br />
time in the comfort area, which is a no-masturbation<br />
zone, to acclimatize and get comfortable before<br />
proceeding to one of the other rooms.”<br />
In preparation for the Masturbate-a-thon, participants<br />
ask friends and loved ones to sponsor them for a<br />
certain amount of money for every minute they<br />
masturbate during the event, the number of orgasms<br />
they achieve or simply for having the courage to<br />
participate. (Some participants even vowed to<br />
beat the US record 8 hours and 32 minutes.) At the<br />
event, each masturbator is assigned a monitor –<br />
someone who has been trained to be discreet, while<br />
monitoring the room to record the number of minutes<br />
the participant masturbates and/or the number of<br />
orgasms achieved.<br />
According to the MSI event website, “The Masturbatea-thon<br />
is about masturbation for a reason, and we<br />
want everyone who attends to help us send the<br />
message that masturbation is a positive, completely<br />
safe and erotic alternative, good for you, and just plain<br />
pleasurable!” Relaxing music, comfortable cushions<br />
on the floor, Moroccan-style décor, disposable paper<br />
towels and batteries (for sex toys) were all provided.<br />
And lubricant was provided by one of the event’s<br />
sponsors, ID Lubricant.<br />
“We are absolutely delighted with the response to this<br />
ground-breaking event,” said MSI’s Tony Kerridge in the<br />
event press release. “Well over 100,000 people have<br />
logged on to the website since it went live just over<br />
two weeks ago, and the amount of media interest<br />
we have generated thus far means that we really<br />
have started to get people thinking and talking about<br />
masturbation and other forms of non-penetrative<br />
sex as safe, healthy and exciting alternatives to<br />
intercourse, which is one of the key aims of this event.”<br />
...explore safer sex, talk about masturbation and lift<br />
the taboos that still surround the subject, by coming<br />
to a public place and coming in a public place!”<br />
from the Marie Stopes International Masturbate-a-thon website, www.masturbate-a-thon.co.uk<br />
18
Naz Foundation International<br />
A resource library with a difference<br />
India Contact<br />
Shivananda Khan, Chief Executive<br />
c/o NFI Regional Liaison Office<br />
UK Contact<br />
Kim Mulji, Executive Director<br />
Naz Foundation International<br />
9 Gulzar Colony, New Berry Lane<br />
Lucknow 226 001, India<br />
Tel +91 522 2205781/2<br />
Palingswick House, 241 King Street<br />
London, UK, W6 9LP<br />
Tel +44 20 8563 0191<br />
Fax +91 522 2205783<br />
Email info@nfi.net<br />
Web www.nfi.net<br />
Fax +44 20 8741 9841<br />
Email info@nfi.net<br />
Web www.nfi.net<br />
Naz Foundation International (NFI) works to improve<br />
the sexual health, welfare and human rights of men<br />
who have sex with men, and their partners. It does<br />
this by advocating for sexual, welfare and human<br />
rights, developing policies on these issues and<br />
providing technical, financial and institutional support<br />
to networks, groups and organizations for men who<br />
have sex with men in developing countries.<br />
The organization hosts the NFI Library and<br />
Information Centre, which was established in<br />
1997 at NFI’s Regional Liaison Office in Lucknow,<br />
northern India, and currently contains over 1,300<br />
books, documents, manuals, articles, reports,<br />
internatiovnal journals, toolkits, CDs, proceedings of<br />
conferences and symposia, and reference sources<br />
such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries, handbooks,<br />
biographies and periodicals. These resources focus<br />
not only on male-to-male sex, but also on a range of<br />
issues related to sexualities, gender, HIV, AIDS, human<br />
rights, law and youth, and including unique resources<br />
related to the eroticization of safer sex. NFI is in the<br />
process of developing a searchable database of its<br />
resources, and in the meantime, keeps an updated<br />
list of its collection on its website: www.nfi.net. NFI has<br />
also produced provocative posters which emphasize<br />
safer sex and pleasure, some featuring sexy images<br />
with a safer-sex message.<br />
Oberlin University Sexual Information Center<br />
(Nearly) naked (safer sex)<br />
dance party for students<br />
Oberlin University Sexual Information Center<br />
Room 203<br />
Wilder Hall<br />
Oberlin College<br />
Oberlin, Ohio<br />
USA<br />
Tel +1 440 775 8135<br />
Email sic@oberlin.edu<br />
Web www.oberlin.edu/stuorg/sic/safer_sex_night.html<br />
An annual dance party aimed at educating<br />
university students about safer sex. In addition to allnight<br />
dancing (but no alcohol), the event includes<br />
demonstrations and workshops on safer oral sex,<br />
the ABCs of sex toys, and proper use of safer sex<br />
supplies. Educational posters cover the walls and<br />
educational videos (with an erotic twist) are shown<br />
during the event. Staff members are available all<br />
night to answer questions, and over 4,000 condoms,<br />
dental dams, and lube packets are distributed. The<br />
dress code is the same for men and women: genitals<br />
and nipples must be covered (with whatever you<br />
like), otherwise, anything goes.<br />
19
PACE<br />
Getting sexy for gay and bisexual men<br />
Contact Tim Foskett<br />
PACE<br />
34 Hartham Road<br />
London<br />
N7 9LJ<br />
Tel +44 20 7700 1323<br />
Fax +44 20 7609 4909<br />
Email info@pace.dircon.co.uk<br />
Web www.pacehealth.org.uk<br />
We work with sex... not with safer sex specifically –<br />
I think it’s because of this that our work is popular,<br />
[since] so many people get nauseous at the<br />
concept of safer sex.”<br />
Tim Foskett, PACE, UK<br />
PACE is London’s largest mental health organization<br />
working with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender<br />
(LGBT) people. It provides counselling, groupwork,<br />
youth work, employment support, mental health<br />
advocacy and family support, as well as a<br />
telephone helpline which is available for family<br />
and relationship support and structured Telephone<br />
Counselling of up to six weekly 30-minute sessions.<br />
According to Tim Foskett, Groupwork and<br />
Training Manager at PACE, “We are a sex-positive<br />
organization in that we see sex as an important<br />
and valued part of most people’s lives. We also<br />
know that many LGBT people find sex and intimate<br />
relationships one of the main areas of sexual health<br />
that they struggle with.”<br />
According to Foskett, the tone and context that is set<br />
by its counsellors is important:<br />
...if we set the context<br />
and tone well, people<br />
want to talk about sex.”<br />
PACE will launch a new publication entitled Getting<br />
Sexy in 2008 – an interactive workbook for gay/bi<br />
men. It aims to help men explore, experiment with<br />
and enjoy sex more, and is a companion to Getting<br />
Ready (on self-esteem) and Getting What You Want<br />
(on friendship and relationship skills), both of which<br />
are published by PACE. Getting Sexy will feature<br />
three different covers to appeal to different users.<br />
When asked if PACE works to eroticize safer sex,<br />
Foskett said, “Our approach has always been to work<br />
holistically. We work with sex … not with safer sex<br />
specifically – I think it’s because of this that our work<br />
is popular, [since] so many people get nauseous at<br />
the concept of safer sex.” However, he also said that<br />
Getting Sexy includes information about ‘unprotected<br />
emotional intercourse, “… a little manifesto about the<br />
sexiness of emotional connection for people who have<br />
to or choose to use condoms, for instance, if you are in<br />
a serodiscordant relationship.”<br />
Foskett said PACE has support from its funders, partly<br />
because “we are a community organization and at<br />
arms length from the NHS [UK National Health Service]<br />
– so we can get the work done without ‘embarrassing’<br />
the NHS. NHS organizations that we have worked<br />
with have had a lot more interference from senior<br />
management about the content of their work.”<br />
Getting Sexy will be available in May 2008 at<br />
www.pacehealth.org.uk<br />
20
The Sambhavana Trust<br />
Pleasure economics for male sex workers<br />
Contact Jasmir Thakur, Executive Officer<br />
Tel +91 982 023 8574<br />
Email jasmir@rediffmail.com<br />
Web www.samabhavana.org<br />
We promote pleasure with economics: if a client feels<br />
good, they will call back... that’s secure income.”<br />
Jasmir Thakur, The Samabhavana Trust, India<br />
The Samabhavana Trust provides sex education and<br />
community development to male sex workers in<br />
Mumbai, to college students, and to the families of<br />
sex workers in an area of Uttar Pradesh. When asked<br />
if the HIV world is erotophobic, the Trust’s Executive<br />
Officer, Jasmir Thakur, said:<br />
“110% – they just miss obvious opportunities, like when<br />
a person gets a negative HIV result, this is an ideal<br />
opportunity to counsel about pleasure and safer sex –<br />
but they don’t … [For example,] Hindi films are all about<br />
pleasure – everyone knows it’s about sex so we should<br />
use them … Older women can tell dirty jokes here – it’s<br />
socially sanctioned, so let’s use that opportunity.”<br />
Thakur also felt that we need to recognize the potential<br />
morality in ourselves and how we might judge those<br />
we are educating – self-reflection needs to be another<br />
skill of the sex educator. “Sex educators often put their<br />
own bias and morals into their work – they think for their<br />
clients and act like Lord and Master.”<br />
“ABC [the US Government’s ‘abstinence, be faithful,<br />
use condoms’ strategy] failed miserably, and if you<br />
want to use condoms consistently then the only power<br />
is making it a sex tool – there has to be a national<br />
pleasure policy and it has to go down to the last<br />
person in the hierarchy, [such as] the peer counsellor.”<br />
The Samabhavana Trust uses pleasure in its HIV prevention<br />
work through a variety of methods, for example:<br />
• condom promotion for heterosexual men<br />
focused on ‘making the pleasure last longer, and<br />
making her feel good through more pleasure’<br />
• telephone helpline from Pune called Ehsaas<br />
(feelings), about sexual rights, law and sexuality.<br />
Among men, the Trust promotes the idea that being<br />
‘masculine’ is not about just having a dick – you also<br />
have to use it well. “We need to think about how to<br />
make condoms masculine, the ‘notch on the belt’<br />
– condoms are not seen as manly, and the Indian<br />
male will do anything if you tell him it’s manly, even<br />
jump off a high building.”<br />
Among sex workers, the Trust emphasizes that ‘you<br />
are being paid to pleasure a client … do it well, and<br />
he or she will call you back’. This came as a result<br />
of sex workers telling the Trust that having regular<br />
clients was necessary for economic stability. Thakur<br />
says that they advise sex workers to “Satisfy him –<br />
kiss, perform foreplay, use your tongue, do oral sex,<br />
ask them how they feel... ” He says it is important<br />
in work with sex workers to promote “pleasure with<br />
economics: if a client feels good they will call back...<br />
that’s secure income.”<br />
The Trust opens and underwrites bank accounts for its<br />
sex worker participants, who otherwise cannot open<br />
bank accounts easily. The men must keep a minimum<br />
balance of Rs1000, and if they fall below this level, the<br />
Trust’s counsellors are notified and use the situation as<br />
a prompt to find out why the income is not coming<br />
in, and how to improve client call-back rates, in part<br />
by using pleasure tactics. For Samabhavana Trust,<br />
pleasure becomes a matter of economics.<br />
21
SAATHII<br />
Sensual suggestions for<br />
male-to-male masseurs<br />
Calcutta Office<br />
Contact Anupam Hazra<br />
CD 335, Sector I, Salt Lake<br />
Calcutta 700 064<br />
West Bengal, India<br />
Tel +91 33 2334 7329<br />
Email saathii@yahoo.com<br />
Web www.saathii.org<br />
SAATHII (Solidarity and Action against the HIV<br />
Infection in India) is an NGO helping to build the<br />
capacity of individuals and organizations that work<br />
on HIV, AIDS and sexuality in India, through research,<br />
technical assistance, advocacy and networking. Its<br />
Calcutta office undertook a study in West Bengal<br />
State exploring notions of pleasure in male-to-male<br />
sex in India, asking the question: ‘Can introducing<br />
‘elements of sensuousness’ in the way male-to-male<br />
sex is perceived and experienced in India make it<br />
safer in terms of STI/HIV infections?’<br />
The study used personal interviews with key<br />
informants in the male-to-male sex community,<br />
including massage parlour owners and masseurs (a<br />
lot of commercial male-to-male sex takes place in<br />
massage parlours). Study findings highlighted the<br />
following aspects of male-to-male sex in India:<br />
• the language of male-to-male sex is largely<br />
aggressive, with sex often associated with<br />
violence and power dynamics (“If one can make<br />
another person lie below him in bed, then he has<br />
more power...” said one informant in the study.)<br />
• oral and anal penetration are common<br />
• the number of sexual partners is seen as an<br />
indicator of status<br />
• among many ‘feminized’ men, aggression,<br />
power and force or rape are not seen as<br />
major issues when it comes to gaining sexual<br />
satisfaction<br />
• aggression increases the chance of unsafe sex<br />
• according to one respondent: “When one meets<br />
a good (looking) guy in the train or bus, they try<br />
to have sex by whatever means (and) wherever<br />
possible, so they can hardly think of condoms then.”<br />
Based on the findings of the study, SAATHII then<br />
asked ‘What can be done to make sex safer for men<br />
who have sex with men without reducing its pleasure<br />
quotient?’ A change in existing laws against samesex<br />
sexual behaviour, obscenity and commercial<br />
sex were named as key changes, but: “The task, of<br />
making society accept sex as a means of getting<br />
pleasure, and that non-penetrative (sex) is also<br />
pleasurable, cannot be achieved overnight; so we<br />
need to find out more immediate and practical<br />
approaches which can be implemented easily.”<br />
Some of the suggested actions include encouraging<br />
sex education in schools which expands the<br />
meaning of ‘sex’ to include non-penetrative acts,<br />
and training masseurs and the owners of massage<br />
parlours to promote safer and more pleasurable sex.<br />
For example, the study authors suggest that:<br />
• each massage parlour can have a trainer skilled<br />
in training masseurs to give pleasurable sexual<br />
services without compromising their or their<br />
clients’ health and well-being;<br />
• training can be given during duet sessions or<br />
through discussion with the masseurs or by<br />
experienced masseurs;<br />
• regular feedback should be sought from clients<br />
to assess the masseurs’ performance and the<br />
feedback should be shared with the masseur so<br />
that he can get additional training if needed; and<br />
• individuals can be trained in the art of lovemaking,<br />
using films, flip charts or books (with cartoons and<br />
photos of models enacting sexual poses).<br />
SAATHII has now started a Sensuousness Action<br />
Research Project (SARP) based on the findings of the<br />
study. Initially, it will test the efficacy of behaviour<br />
change communication (BCC) materials which<br />
incorporate elements of sensuousness in making<br />
male-to-male sex safer as well as pleasurable. The<br />
BCC materials will include a short film, small booklet<br />
and training workshop module. The film is a short<br />
feature set in a massage parlour, where the massage<br />
parlour owner deals with a client wanting a sexual<br />
massage, and a masseur deals with the client and<br />
negotiates safer sex. The film is being made using<br />
sensuous still photos with a voice-over narrative.<br />
Other actions are also planned by SAATHII, and the<br />
study has illuminated a wide range of priorities which<br />
could go a long way towards increasing safer sex in<br />
male-to-male sexual encounters by working within<br />
existing notions of sensuality and pleasure, while also<br />
helping to change some of the norms, beliefs and legal<br />
and social issues that prevent safer sex and well-being.<br />
22
If men were made to feel that using condoms made<br />
them better in bed (because women can let go and<br />
enjoy themselves without fear of pregnancy and STIs)<br />
then they would be more inclined to use them...”<br />
Sarah Hedley, Editor, Scarlet Magazine, UK<br />
popular media<br />
and porn<br />
23
Selina Fire<br />
Sex blogger who says safe sex is kinky sex<br />
Web http://selinafire.blogspot.com<br />
He could only take a few thrusts, gently cradling my<br />
head until he moaned, “I’m gonna cum if we don’t<br />
stop. I want to fuck you.” So I stopped sucking him.<br />
He got on top of me and we rolled on a condom. I<br />
helped him put his dick in my wet pussy and he did<br />
his hard driving, fast fucking - slam! slam! slam! It felt<br />
so good and hard, so deep. Nice to feel so well filled.”<br />
Selina Fire, from the story ‘Lovers’ Posse and more Summer Parties’<br />
Selina Fire is a sex blogger and writer with a<br />
difference – she writes hot, outrageous, filthy stories<br />
about her life, and knows how to make safer sex hot<br />
without it being a big deal. Her sex blog is “Sex in the<br />
City—The Real Version,” through which she tells the<br />
tales of “A 48 year old New York City woman’s sexual<br />
adventures.” She also writes a column for Penthouse<br />
Forum magazine, and last year dedicated a whole<br />
column (April 2007) to ideas for kinkier safer sex,<br />
including mutual masturbation, tit sex, fisting, getting<br />
her partner to come on her face, and exhibitionism.<br />
Selina writes about safer sex in such an arousing way<br />
that you cannot fail to see how it can be sexy and<br />
how much she enjoys it.<br />
24
Anna Span<br />
Easy on the Eye Productions<br />
Contact Anna Span<br />
Easy on the Eye productions<br />
The Old Bakery<br />
Ashley Gardens,<br />
Rusthall. Tunbridge Wells<br />
Kent, UK<br />
TN4 8TU<br />
Email anna@easyote.co.uk<br />
I put condoms in films when people [actors and<br />
actresses] ask to use them, and also if the story<br />
requires it, like a 1950’s set piece or medical piece.”<br />
Anna Span, Easy on the Eye Productions, UK<br />
Anna Span started shooting porn films after<br />
graduating from art school in 1998. It was there<br />
that she wrote her dissertation ‘Towards a New<br />
Pornography’, in which she considered what<br />
a female perspective on porn would look like.<br />
She sees it as one of the last underdeveloped or<br />
unexplored areas left in film. Since 1999 she has<br />
made television programmes, written books, and<br />
released nearly 30 explicit erotic films, both softcore<br />
and hardcore. Anna calls her films soap operas with<br />
sex, and works to appeal to women who want more<br />
characterization and build-up to the sex, which is<br />
usually missing in other heterosexual films.<br />
She has also broken new ground by not only<br />
including, but featuring, male and female condoms<br />
in some of her films: ‘Uniform Behaviour’, ‘A&O<br />
Department’, and ‘Do the Business’. “I put condoms<br />
in films when people [actors and actresses] ask to<br />
use them, and also if the story requires it, like a 1950’s<br />
set piece or medical piece,” said Span.<br />
But Span admits it is not always easy: there are<br />
challenges with distributors, who are not keen on<br />
condoms in films and see them as less marketable,<br />
and with some actors, who don’t want to lose their<br />
erections by using condoms.<br />
“Using the female condom is very difficult in films. In<br />
‘A & O Department’ and ‘Uniform Behaviour’, none<br />
of the models or crew could follow the instructions<br />
on the back of the pack, regardless of our joint<br />
experiences in the world of sex. It just kept coming<br />
off on the guy’s dick – so we just carried on using<br />
it like it was a normal condom. Interestingly, the<br />
condom almost fit one guy – just goes to show how<br />
big these guys are!”<br />
“As for male condoms, some guys lose their hardons<br />
when they put a condom on, which means they<br />
have to rip it off in order to masturbate and then<br />
start using a new one. Some scenes they get through<br />
seven or eight of them and it makes the day much<br />
longer. Male porn stars become a little desensitized<br />
in their penis, because they use it so much and<br />
because the thrill lessens in time, so using condoms<br />
can make this worse. This is the main problem with<br />
condoms in porn films for me. It means that I have<br />
to be careful what guys I use, which ultimately ends<br />
up with less choice of men for women to view. This<br />
is why I sit on the fence and say that I will include<br />
condoms in a scene if one of the models wants to<br />
use them – or if the story requires them – rather than<br />
include them in all films. I have to balance making<br />
porn for women and being a r esponsible producer.”<br />
...some guys lose their hard-ons when they put a<br />
condom on, which means they have to rip it off in order<br />
to masturbate and then start using a new one. Some<br />
scenes they get through seven or eight of them and it<br />
makes the day much longer.”<br />
Anna Span, Easy on the Eye Productions, UK<br />
25
Chi Chi LaRue<br />
Safe Sex is Hot Sex campaign<br />
for condoms in gay porn<br />
Web www.safesexishotsex.com<br />
What we are seeing now is drastically different [than in<br />
the past]. We are seeing movies with 18-year-old twinks<br />
being gang banged without condoms. We are seeing...<br />
20-year-olds in the UK who have reportedly become<br />
HIV-positive after making their first porn.”<br />
Chi Chi LaRue, Safe Sex is Hot Sex website, USA<br />
Chi Chi LaRue (a.k.a. Larry David Paciotti) is an erotic<br />
film director, drag queen and performer in the USA.<br />
She is considered one of the gay adult industry’s<br />
most successful directors, and also directs straight<br />
and bisexual erotic films. A long-time advocate for<br />
condom use in gay porn, LaRue announced she<br />
would no longer produce films for Vivid Video in 2006<br />
because they adopted a condom-optional policy.<br />
In recent years LaRue created production company<br />
Channel 1 Releasing, which requires actors and<br />
actresses to use condoms in all of its films.<br />
In response to recent reports of a rise in HIV among<br />
gay men and an increase in ‘barebacking’ (anal<br />
sex without condoms) porn, LaRue created a<br />
four-minute video public service announcement<br />
(PSA) explaining the risks of barebacking porn,<br />
and the responsibility of porn consumers to avoid<br />
barebacking porn in order to protect the health and<br />
lives of porn actors. The video features La Rue (both<br />
in drag and as Larry Paciotti) speaking to viewers<br />
about condom use, with the message to ‘wrap it up’<br />
because ‘safe sex is hot sex’, while gay porn video<br />
clips run in the background.<br />
Launched in early 2008, the PSA has been shown<br />
on gay porn sites and blogs, covered by the media,<br />
including the New York Times and the BBC, and<br />
received support from the US Centers for Disease<br />
Control (CDC), the Journal of the American<br />
Medical Association, and other medical and<br />
media organizations.<br />
Said LaRue of her decision to make the PSA (from<br />
www.safesexishotsex.com):<br />
“When I moved to LA in 1987 and took a job in<br />
promotions at Catalina Video, the AIDS crisis was<br />
in full swing. I lobbied hard to … get condoms<br />
on the models. I would like to think that some of<br />
my persuasion helped make condom movies a<br />
reality. Since then, gay porn has helped lead the<br />
way in showing gay men how to use condoms, how<br />
to have safer sex and removed some of the stigma<br />
that was associated with condoms at the time.”<br />
“When I first started seeing barebacking titles<br />
appear, of course I was disappointed and very<br />
outspoken. The fact is that it was pretty obvious to<br />
most that the models ‘appeared’ to be HIV+ and<br />
were having unsafe sex with what ‘appeared’ to<br />
be other HIV+ models. Again not something I have<br />
ever heard was recommended, but in any case,<br />
it is something that does seem to be more readily<br />
practiced in the gay community. What we are<br />
seeing now is drastically different. We are seeing<br />
movies with 18-year-old twinks being gang banged<br />
without condoms. We are seeing ... 20-year-olds<br />
in the UK who have reportedly become HIV+ after<br />
making their first porn.”<br />
26
Fatale Media<br />
Steamy lesbian safer-sex porn<br />
Nan Kinney, President and Producer<br />
Christine Cassidy, Vice President and<br />
Marketing Director<br />
1537 Fourth Street, Suite 193<br />
San Rafael, California 94901<br />
USA<br />
Tel +1 415 454 3291<br />
Email nan@fatalemedia.com or<br />
christi@fatalemedia.com<br />
Web www.fatalemedia.com<br />
Fatale’s goal has always been to portray images of<br />
sexuality that mainstream adult producers overlook,<br />
so exploring and eroticizing safer sex for women fit<br />
perfectly with that goal.”<br />
Nan Kinney, Fatale Media, USA<br />
Fatale Media produces and markets lesbian erotica,<br />
including ‘Safe is Desire’, a safer-sex lesbian film<br />
described as “raw lust and passion with a heart”.<br />
According to Fatale Media President, Nan Kinney,<br />
“Fatale’s goal has always been to portray images of<br />
sexuality that mainstream adult producers overlook,<br />
so exploring and eroticizing safer sex for women fit<br />
perfectly with that goal.”<br />
“In San Francisco in the early 1990s, HIV was taking<br />
a huge toll on the gay community,” explained<br />
Kinney. “Fatale was one of the very few companies<br />
producing porn made by and for lesbians, and<br />
we felt it was important to produce a video that<br />
addressed safer-sex issues and techniques for<br />
lesbians. Although the transmission of HIV between<br />
women is low in numbers, we knew there were other<br />
ways for HIV to affect women; for example, some<br />
lesbians have sex with men, or use needles. And<br />
safer-sex techniques are important not just in<br />
preventing HIV but all the other STDs as well.”<br />
Kinney said that Fatale wanted to show that safersex<br />
techniques don’t have to be a turn-off; they<br />
could be a turn-on. For example, instead of using the<br />
thick dental dams that were recommended for oral<br />
sex, why not have fun with wrapping your partner up<br />
in Saran Wrap [cling film]? Or, changing the condom<br />
on your strap-on makes it easier to switch from anal sex<br />
to vaginal sex and barely miss a beat. According to<br />
Kinney, “These sorts of sexy tricks can really change<br />
people’s attitudes around safer sex.”<br />
Instead of using the thick dental dams that were<br />
recommended for oral sex, why not have fun with<br />
wrapping your partner up in Saran Wrap?”<br />
Nan Kinney, Fatale Media, USA<br />
27
Modern Loving I and II<br />
Hot instructional films for hetero couples<br />
Director Suzanne Noble<br />
Available at www.passion8.com<br />
Slowly and carefully tear open the packet, learn to love<br />
the sound of the tear...”<br />
Suzanne Noble, Modern Loving I and II<br />
Modern Loving I and II are erotic instructional videos<br />
for heterosexual couples that feature sexy safer sex.<br />
They show real couples trying out different sexual<br />
techniques and positions as a way to help viewers<br />
improve their sex lives. The Pleasure Project provided<br />
condom consultancy on set to ensure that the sex is<br />
always safe but the film is still sexy.<br />
Scenes include a woman masturbating with a<br />
female condom; a man using a female condom<br />
for anal sex with his partner; a man going down on<br />
his partner using a dental dam; various examples of<br />
male condoms and lube; and a multitude of nonpenetrative,<br />
super-sexy techniques.<br />
In Modern Loving I, the films narrator instructs: “If<br />
you fancy trying the female condom, ask your man<br />
to give you a hand … The outer ring stays on the<br />
outside and rubs against the clitoris for extra impact.<br />
Your man also gets off by feeling the inner ring rub<br />
against the head of his penis.”<br />
There are also candid comments from the actors and<br />
actresses, with their respective partners. According<br />
to one of the actors, “I enjoyed everything today. For<br />
me it was a first with Femidom [the female condom]<br />
… it was great. I mean, at least I’ve got an idea of<br />
what it looks like and feels like.”<br />
A scene featuring the male condom suggests,<br />
“Slowly and carefully tear open the packet. Learn to<br />
love the sound of the tear.”<br />
The safer sex in the films is a beautiful coincidence and<br />
a subliminal message: that safer sex is sexy. Modern<br />
Loving I and II don’t talk about STIs or HIV; instead they<br />
show safer sex as the norm and as a turn-on.<br />
28
Scarlet<br />
‘Cliterature’ and sexpertise in<br />
a mainstream magazine<br />
Contact Sarah Hedley, Editor<br />
Scarlet Publishing Ltd<br />
9 Rickett Street, Fulham<br />
London, UK<br />
SW6 1RU<br />
Tel +44 20 7835 5554<br />
Web www.scarletmagazine.co.uk<br />
...all [of our] erotic fiction stories feature<br />
condom use. It’s referred to in an evocative<br />
language that invites the reader to be<br />
aroused when they hear the crisp, enticing<br />
tear of the condom packet, the naughty,<br />
sharp twang of rubber... ”<br />
Sarah Hedley, Editor, Scarlet Magazine, UK<br />
Scarlet is a national women’s lifestyle magazine that<br />
incorporates an erotic fiction magazine (Cliterature)<br />
– which aims to promote a safe and full sex life for<br />
women – in a package that also offers fashion,<br />
beauty, celebrity and political features. The Cliterature<br />
section prints readers’ sexy confessions, erotica book<br />
extracts and original erotic fiction from the world’s<br />
leading writers, designed for bedtime reading. The<br />
magazine also features sex toy reviews, ‘sexpertise’<br />
(sex tips) from leading sex educators, and profiles of<br />
iconic female sexual adventurers, such as Anais Nin<br />
and Germaine Greer.<br />
“From the very start, Scarlet has promoted safe sex<br />
through a policy of eroticizing condom use,” explained<br />
its Editor, Sarah Hedley. “We do not feel that lecturing<br />
people about what they already know, or scaring them<br />
with STI statistics is effective in changing the way people<br />
view safe sex … As house policy all erotic fiction stories<br />
feature condom use. It’s referred to in an evocative<br />
language that invites the reader to be aroused when<br />
they hear the crisp, enticing tear of the condom<br />
packet, the naughty, sharp twang of rubber… We don’t<br />
gloss over it – we enjoy it. We indulge in it. By eroticizing<br />
condom use, the presence of condoms becomes part<br />
of sexplay, rather than a problem.”<br />
Elsewhere in the magazine, Hedley explained, they<br />
work closely with leading condom companies to prove<br />
that condoms play a valid role as sex toys, promoting<br />
their various benefits such as helping to prolong sex<br />
and enhance sensation. She has also personally<br />
visited the world’s largest condom production plants<br />
in Bangkok and Barcelona to verify first-hand the<br />
rigorous safety checks and high production values<br />
used in manufacturing the condoms that are sold in<br />
Britain. And Scarlet offers free advertising space to the<br />
Government to promote safer-sex campaigns.<br />
The response from readers, Hedley said, has been<br />
positive, with women saying that the magazine has<br />
changed their views about condom use, and helped<br />
them to use condoms as a way of improving their sex<br />
lives. “Our readers with teenage children have written<br />
to say they let their children read the magazine as<br />
they feel it provides safe, sex-positive education that is<br />
missing in schools today.”<br />
Moving forward, Scarlet would like to help the<br />
Government in planning and developing sex<br />
education in a way that young adults can relate<br />
to and benefit from.<br />
Hedley explained that the magazine had a mixed<br />
response in the beginning. At first, magazine sellers said<br />
that a magazine catering to female sexuality would<br />
not sell because “women just aren’t interested in sex”.<br />
“An utterly laughable notion,” said Hedley. Three years<br />
on, and circulation continues to grow. More and more<br />
vendors are distributing Scarlet and increasing the<br />
number of their stores in which they stock it, to include<br />
major mainstream bookshops and supermarket and<br />
pharmacy chains.<br />
According to Hedley, “If gender stereotyping was<br />
to be used to promote safe sex, then the following<br />
angle could be taken: if men were made to feel that<br />
using condoms made them better in bed (because<br />
women can let go and enjoy themselves without<br />
fear of pregnancy and STIs), then they would be<br />
more inclined to use them; if women knew that men<br />
were more likely to respect a woman who insisted on<br />
condom use, then they may be more inclined to make<br />
condom use mandatory.”<br />
29
...score yourself some packs of PREMIERE condoms<br />
in their Ultra Thin and Dotted varieties. Place them<br />
in a bed-accessible spot to keep the make-out<br />
momentum going and have her take her pick.<br />
Then, once she’s ‘dressed you up,’ ask her what<br />
she wants you to do to her and fulfil her fantasies.”<br />
From DKT Philippines website, www.frenzy.com.ph<br />
social<br />
marketing<br />
30
ProSexHot Website<br />
Bem-Estar Familiar no Brasil<br />
Av. República do Chile<br />
230/17 andar, 20.031-170, Centro<br />
Rio de Janeiro - RJ<br />
Brazil<br />
Tel +55 21 3861 2400<br />
Fax +55 21 3861 2469<br />
Web www.bemfam.org.br<br />
BENFAM (Bem-Estar Familiar no Brasil) is a national<br />
organization providing sexual and reproductive<br />
health and rights services and support throughout<br />
Brazil. In addition to its health services, it has a social<br />
marketing male condom brand called ProSex<br />
(www.prosex.com.br) and a highly provocative sister<br />
site – www.prosexhot.com.br – which sells ProSex<br />
condoms along with a whole range of sex toys and<br />
accessories. The site places condoms and lube<br />
at the top of the list of products, but otherwise it<br />
appears to be an erotic products site, complete with<br />
a steamy photograph of a lingerie-clad woman on<br />
a bed, which appears upon reaching the site. Here<br />
the visitor is notified that the site is for adults only.<br />
Within the site, images of the many sex products on<br />
offer run across the top of the screen. If a visitor clicks<br />
on ‘condoms’, several different ProSex male condoms<br />
and packages appear, while images of erotic DVDs<br />
and games, vibrators, butt plugs, lube, lingerie and<br />
other goodies scroll across the top of the page.<br />
There is no indication that the website is part of the<br />
work of a health organization, which helps to prevent<br />
association of sex with disease and prevention.<br />
31
DKT International<br />
Earth-shaking condom vibes<br />
DKT International<br />
1701 K Street, NW<br />
Suite 900<br />
Washington, DC 20006, USA<br />
Tel +1 202 223 8780<br />
Fax +1 202 223 8786<br />
Email info@dktinternational.org<br />
Web www.dktinternational.org<br />
www.frenzy.com.ph<br />
www.temperospessoais.com.br<br />
It seems almost obvious that pleasure should be a<br />
factor in promoting condoms – they are unique among<br />
contraception in that they are shaped like an erect penis...”<br />
Phillip Harvey, Founder, DKT International<br />
DKT International is a family planning and HIV<br />
prevention social marketing company, with<br />
programmes in 12 countries. According to DKT’s<br />
Founder, Phillip Harvey, “It is logical to make the<br />
association between sexual pleasure and condoms.”<br />
But selling condoms using pleasure messages (what<br />
he calls the ‘pleasure platform’) has been stronger<br />
in an AIDS context than in a family planning context.<br />
“The family planning sector has tried to take sex<br />
out of the contraception dialogue,” he explained.<br />
“Promoting condoms using pleasure in the AIDS<br />
context – rather than the family planning context –<br />
has been both more widely used and accepted, but<br />
we don’t know if it has been more effective.”<br />
While he admits the idea that condoms are not<br />
pleasurable has a lot of truth behind it, Harvey<br />
explained that one survey DKT did with condom<br />
users had a male respondent say that he gets off on<br />
condoms. Harvey said for some people condoms are<br />
a turn-on, but this is not true for the majority. For most,<br />
they feel condoms reduce sensation and pleasure.<br />
“So we try to compensate for this by adding ribbing,<br />
studs, cock rings, etc.”<br />
In the Philippines, DKT’s Premiere brand of male condoms<br />
features the strapline “Hang on for the thrill...” on its<br />
provocative website, with erotic instruction to help<br />
men become fantastic lovers (www.frenzy.com.ph).<br />
It is packed with great sexy tips, such as: ‘Seven<br />
scorching ways to a thrilling vacation’, which includes<br />
“Strengthen your legs through wall [rock] climbing.<br />
It’s a great warm-up to many more positions beyond<br />
missionary!”, followed by “But don’t forget the right<br />
equipment – always keep a pack of Premiere within<br />
reach during sweltering holidays.” That is just a taster<br />
of the sex advice available on the site, which is always<br />
accompanied by sexy reminders to have the ‘right<br />
equipment on hand’ and clever and insightful tips for<br />
negotiating condom use with lovers.<br />
DKT Brazil’s new online erotic store – Temperos Pessoais<br />
(“Personal Spices”), www.temperospessoais.com.br –<br />
sells safer-sex supplies along with sex toys, lingerie and<br />
other erotic accessories. One of its most controversial<br />
campaigns was launched in response to a survey of<br />
men who have sex with men, who said they wanted<br />
a campaign focused on positive things like pleasure<br />
and respect, not disease, and felt condom use should<br />
be portrayed as sexy. In February 2006, DKT Brazil<br />
launched the Affair brand for gay men, including<br />
the Affair Sensation condom – a ‘baggy’ condom,<br />
with more room at the closed end to allow for more<br />
friction at the end of the penis – and Affair waterbased<br />
lube. The Affair marketing campaign featured<br />
sensual images on billboards, point-of-sale materials,<br />
and a website with dance music, a quiz, health<br />
information and sexy images. Billboards with images<br />
of men touching and kissing were taken down when<br />
32
the Advertising Council received “a few complaints<br />
of ‘inappropriately excessive public sensuality’”<br />
during Carnival month (a time when the streets are<br />
filled with excessive public sensuality). The negative<br />
responses, though, generated hot debate in the<br />
media, and sales were up 33% in 2006.<br />
In 2008, DKT Indonesia introduced the Fiesta<br />
Earthquake condom, which comes with a vibrating<br />
cock ring that aims to provide “30 minutes of intense<br />
pleasure for you and your partner”. The campaign<br />
was launched in Jakarta, during a live performance<br />
by Paul Van Dyk, one of the world’s most popular<br />
DJs, which was attended by around 20,000 people.<br />
One week before the launch, DKT distributed Fiesta<br />
Earthquake to Circle K 24-hour mini-markets, and it is<br />
now available in pharmacies and other mainstream<br />
shops. They are promoting it through print advertising<br />
in national lifestyle and men’s magazines, and starting<br />
a campaign called Fiesta Earthquake Event Series –<br />
Disco Fiesta. This will involve DKT staff travelling to four<br />
major cities in Java to hold eight events featuring top<br />
Indonesian DJs. During the discos, sales promotion<br />
‘girls’ will sell the condom at a 40% discount and<br />
offer customers a Fiesta Mix Anthem CD for free.<br />
According to Pierre Frederick, a Brand Manager at<br />
DKT Indonesia, “I am still hesitant to use TV ads for<br />
this product because, if it is over exposed … religious<br />
groups here may complain about this particular<br />
product. In the meantime, we’ll stick with print, radio<br />
and most of all the ‘word of mouth’ campaigns.”<br />
Two-thirds of all social marketing in the world is done<br />
by DKT and Population Services International (PSI),<br />
and a lot of that social marketing (including DKT’s<br />
and PSI’s) uses erotic messages or images to sell<br />
condoms. According to Harvey, “Social marketers<br />
have been out front on this because sex has always<br />
been such an important theme in advertising<br />
generally, and social marketers are marketers.”<br />
33
Female Health Company<br />
Fun sex with female condoms<br />
Contact Robbie Nelson, Director of<br />
Programmes and Sales<br />
Female Health Company<br />
Sovereign Park, Unit One<br />
Coronation Road, Park Royal<br />
London, UK<br />
NW10 7QP<br />
Tel +44 20 8965 2813<br />
Fax +44 20 8453 0324<br />
Email rnelson@femalehealthcompany.com<br />
Web www.www.femalehealth.com<br />
The NGOs we work with, which have had pleasure<br />
trainings from The Pleasure Project, are not only making<br />
it easier for people to talk about condoms, but they are<br />
showing people how sex can be fun with condoms.”<br />
Robbie Nelson, Director of Programmes and Sales, Female Health Company, UK<br />
The Female Health Company (FHC) manufactures,<br />
markets and sells the female condom, the first and<br />
only female-initiated barrier method that is safe<br />
and effective if used correctly and consistently and<br />
provides dual protection against the transmission of<br />
STIs, including HIV, and unintended pregnancy. The<br />
female condom is currently sold or available through<br />
various channels in 108 countries. Currently, there<br />
are public sector female condom programmes in<br />
various stages in more than 90 countries.<br />
“The innovative approach of eroticizing the female<br />
condom is already having an impact,” said Robbie<br />
Nelson, FHC’s Director of Programmes and Sales.<br />
“The NGOs we work with, which have had pleasure<br />
trainings from The Pleasure Project, are not only<br />
making it easier for people to talk about condoms,<br />
but they are showing people how sex can be fun<br />
with condoms.”<br />
According to Robbie Nelson, FHC’s Director of<br />
Programmes and Sales, FHC seeks unique and valid<br />
ways to get men and women to talk about safe<br />
sex, and pleasure-focused work is helping to create<br />
comprehensive approaches that elicit surprise, raise<br />
awareness, and generate discussion around barrier<br />
protective methods. “This is a great way to normalize<br />
and de-stigmatize the female condom.”<br />
FHC has provided key support to organizations<br />
advocating for a more sex-positive, pleasurefocused<br />
approach to the female condom. This<br />
has included supporting counsellors from Positively<br />
Women (www.positivelywomen.org.uk) to receive<br />
pleasure-focused training for the promotion of<br />
female condoms among HIV-positive African<br />
women in London, UK; funding for ‘Sexy tips for<br />
female condoms’ communications materials,<br />
which have been distributed at conferences and<br />
trainings worldwide, and appeared in Positively<br />
Women magazine; support for The Pleasure Project<br />
to promote the female condom as a sex toy at<br />
conferences and other events; and pleasure<br />
promotion of the female condom at the National<br />
African HIV Conference in London in 2008.<br />
The Female Condom, image courtesy of the Female<br />
Health Company website (www.femalehealth.com)<br />
34
Hindustan Latex Limited and Family<br />
Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT)<br />
Your passport to ‘The Republic of Pleasure’<br />
Contact Kavitha Potturi,<br />
National Programme Manager<br />
Hindustan Latex Limited and<br />
Family Promotion Trust<br />
Veena Dhari, 3-5-816<br />
2nd Floor, King Koti Road<br />
Hyderbad 500 029<br />
India<br />
Tel +91 40 23230821<br />
Email kpotturi@hlfppt.org<br />
Web www.hlfppt.org and<br />
www.moodsplanet.com<br />
Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL) is an Indian-<br />
Government-owned health care company which<br />
produces and sells male condoms and other health<br />
care products. Its Moods brand of male condoms is<br />
sold in part through the Moods Planet website (www.<br />
moodsplanet.com) – a super-sexy interactive site,<br />
with an online community forum and chat area,<br />
condoms for sale (in the Rubber Room), sex tips and<br />
Q&A, sensual screensavers (at the ‘G-spot’ section<br />
of the site), music downloads (MoodTunes), and<br />
information about safer sex.<br />
In 2007, HLL launched the Crezendo condom,<br />
which features a vibrating (cock) ring at its base<br />
and is marketed as providing “ultimate pleasure by<br />
producing strong vibrations”. The leaflet with the<br />
pack describes it as a “passport to ‘The Republic<br />
of Pleasure’”, and says the ring is designed to take<br />
a couple through a “20-minute joyride through<br />
the realms of vibrating pleasure”. It also includes<br />
information inside that “the vibrating ring can be<br />
used without a condom for self-pleasure.” But<br />
HLL faced strong opposition to Crezendo from<br />
government officials in the state of Madhya Pradesh,<br />
who accused HLL of selling a ‘sex toy’ in the guise<br />
of a condom (the sale of sex toys is illegal in India).<br />
Critics said that the Government should not sell<br />
products to promote sexual pleasure, but only<br />
for reproductive health and HIV prevention. HLL<br />
explained that Crezendo was designed to address<br />
low condom use rates, which surveys showed was<br />
due to people not finding condoms pleasurable.<br />
Fortunately, the controversy generated widespread<br />
publicity and may have contributed to robust sales<br />
of Crezendo, even in Madhya Pradesh. 7<br />
HLL’s social marketing arm, the Hindustan Latex<br />
Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT), markets<br />
a number of brands, including the Velvet brand of<br />
female condoms, which were introduced after a<br />
previous attempt to promote the Confidom brand of<br />
female condoms without much sales success. Velvet<br />
female condoms feature the strapline “get closer”<br />
and use other elements of pleasure for promotion.<br />
Sales of the female condom have improved since<br />
Velvet was launched, with a 63% re-purchase rate<br />
among users. As of early 2008, HLFPPT had sold<br />
600,000 female condoms in six months in six states in<br />
India – much higher than projected. HLFPPT sells the<br />
product through a variety of channels, including at<br />
parties with Valentine’s Day themes.<br />
Health providers don’t<br />
see sex as pleasurable.<br />
It will need a huge<br />
paradigm shift.”<br />
Kavitha Potturi, National Programme Manager, HLLFPT<br />
In its public sector promotion of Velvet, HLFPPT<br />
uses pleasure as a topic in its workshops and as a<br />
reason to use the female condom. This approach<br />
arose in the initial research on promoting female<br />
condoms, where men were saying they don’t use<br />
male condoms because they are tight and reduce<br />
pleasure. When they were asked to define pleasure<br />
they said ‘warmth, wetness and natural to touch’.<br />
So in its public- and private-sector promotion of<br />
Velvet, HLFPPT emphasizes that the female condom<br />
provides added warmth (the polyurethane it is<br />
made of conducts heat better than latex), better<br />
lubrication (because it can take any kind of lube,<br />
both water- and oil-based) and many people say<br />
it feels more like skin to skin during intercourse. In<br />
the public sector, the HLFPPT markets the female<br />
condom specifically to sex workers who want a<br />
product to use with regular boyfriends, not clients, by<br />
talking about the warmth of the product, the extra<br />
lubrication and how it feels.<br />
According to HLFPPT’s National Programme Manager<br />
Kavitha Potturi, to promote the pleasure benefits of<br />
the female condom: “We should move beyond the<br />
obvious – what else interests people in safer sex? …<br />
[for example,] men like to insert the female condom<br />
into women and find it very exciting.”<br />
When asked if the sexual health practitioners she<br />
works with have any personal barriers to discussing<br />
pleasure, Potturi said, “Health providers don’t see<br />
sex as pleasurable. It will need a huge paradigm<br />
shift. I’ve attended so many trainings where people<br />
tell me only about protection. [HLFPPT] have<br />
consciously moved to the benefits and advantages<br />
of the female condom, not only pleasure, but<br />
better quality of life, confidence, making your own<br />
decisions … it’s a ripple effect: when I make a good<br />
decision it is a turn-on, or if I know I have financial<br />
security it is a turn-on...”<br />
7<br />
http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2007/08/crezendo-passport-to-republic-of.html<br />
35
Marie Stopes International Australia<br />
Pinky Bits the Sex Fairy meets the big ‘O’<br />
Contact Alice Clements<br />
Marie Stopes International Australia<br />
PO Box 6308 St Kilda Road Central<br />
Melbourne<br />
Victoria 8008<br />
Australia<br />
Email Alice.clements@mariestopes.org.au<br />
Web www.mariestopes.org.au<br />
Marie Stopes International (MSI) Australia is part of<br />
the global MSI partnership, a UK-based registered<br />
charity providing sexual and reproductive health<br />
care services to people in 38 countries. MSI was<br />
established in London in 1976, and grew out of the<br />
organization originally set up by Dr Marie Stopes, the<br />
family planning pioneer who opened the UK’s first<br />
family planning clinic in 1921.<br />
In 2007, MSI Australia teamed up with feminine<br />
hygiene company Cottons to launch the Vixen male<br />
condom brand, which, according to MSI Australia’s<br />
Alice Clements, was developed in response to the<br />
fact that condoms are generally marketed to men,<br />
and are located near male shaving products in<br />
shops. Vixen condoms are packaged in a stylishly<br />
designed tin that appeals to women and which<br />
slips easily into a handbag, and are being sold<br />
near other feminine hygiene products in shops. The<br />
condoms themselves are ultra-thin and pink, and are<br />
individually packaged within an easy-to-open peelback<br />
pack, as opposed to the traditional foil packet.<br />
Vixen was created as a way for women to be<br />
in control of their sexuality and to reduce their<br />
embarrassment with purchasing and carrying male<br />
condoms. However, the accompanying marketing<br />
resources and clever advertising are the keys to<br />
Vixen’s erotic appeal. The product’s website (www.<br />
comebeautifullyprepared.com) features Pinky Bits<br />
the Sex Fairy, wearing a frilly skirt and spreading her<br />
legs – peacock style – above the strapline ‘Coming,<br />
coming, coming … come beautifully prepared’. In<br />
the animated short video ‘Pinky Bits the Sex Fairy<br />
Meets the Big O’, Pinky Bits “mounts her favourite<br />
pony, Roger...” and goes on a journey filled with<br />
sexual innuendo and euphemism that is funny, sexy<br />
and ends in Pinky Bits finally finding the big ‘O’.<br />
Even the safer-sex information on the Vixen site<br />
is eroticized: “Time to get it on … With the right<br />
technique, rolling the condom on for him can be<br />
sensational foreplay...” and “With a few drops of<br />
(water-based) lube and a couple of swift strokes,<br />
you’ll help him to forget he’s even wearing one.”<br />
Time to get it on... with the right technique, rolling the<br />
comdom on for him can be sensational foreplay...”<br />
Vixen condoms website, Marie Stopes Australia<br />
36
Also, Vixen condoms are being sold to raise funds.<br />
“Do it for charity,” the packaging says. “$1 from<br />
the sale of each pack goes to the Marie Stopes Sex<br />
Appeal – to improve women’s health in developing<br />
countries and Indigenous Australia.” Despite lacking<br />
the marketing budget of its competitors, 13,000 Vixen<br />
condoms were sold in Australia and New Zealand<br />
between May and December 2007, and the launch<br />
is ongoing. Plus, there are indications that some gay<br />
men also find the design of Vixen appealing.<br />
With a few drops of<br />
(water-based) lube and<br />
a couple of swift strokes,<br />
you’ll help him to forget<br />
he’s even wearing one.”<br />
Vixen condoms website, Marie Stopes Australia<br />
Society for Women and AIDS in Africa<br />
The latest erotic accessory<br />
(female condoms!)<br />
Contact Madame Rokhaya NGUER,<br />
National Coordinator<br />
Sicap sacré Coeur II, N° 8792<br />
Dakar BP 7504<br />
Médina<br />
Senegal<br />
Tel +221 824 5178 or +221 864 4626<br />
Fax +221 864 5067<br />
Email swaasenegal@sentoo.sn or<br />
rnguer@sentoo.sn<br />
The Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA) is the<br />
only pan-African AIDS organization working with and for<br />
women and their families based on locally determined<br />
needs and priorities. SWAA mobilizes communities by<br />
strengthening capacity to prevent, control and mitigate<br />
the impact of the epidemic. Today, SWAA is a network<br />
of 40 grassroots country offices.<br />
SWAA was instrumental in advocating for increased<br />
access to and affordability of female condoms in<br />
their respective countries, as a means for women<br />
to protect themselves from STIs and unwanted<br />
pregnancy. SWAA Senegal was extremely<br />
innovative in the early stages of the distribution of<br />
female condoms, by linking the noise made by the<br />
movement of the polyurethane female condom<br />
during intercourse to the rattling of bine-bine<br />
beads. The beads are an erotic accessory, which<br />
men present to their female lovers to wear around<br />
their hips. This shows a highly creative response to<br />
integrating the features of the female condom into<br />
the local context in an erotic way. As a result, for<br />
some Senegalese men and women, the noise of<br />
the condom was transformed into a sexual turn-on,<br />
rather than a turn-off. SWAA Senegal then marketed<br />
the female condoms with bine-bine beads as<br />
‘the package you need for hot sex’. This was sold<br />
alongside incense, sexy underwear and other erotic<br />
accessories. In addition, they used the notion that<br />
the female condom accommodates a wide range<br />
of penis sizes as an incentive to use them.<br />
In Ghana, SWAA Ghana found that men were telling<br />
their friends about how good the female condom<br />
felt, and even bought female condoms to use<br />
during masturbation.<br />
37
Population Services<br />
International Cambodia<br />
Lube and condoms for slippery and safe sex<br />
Population Services International Cambodia<br />
29, Street 334, PO Box 153<br />
Boeung Keng Kang 1<br />
Chamcar Mon<br />
Phnom Penh<br />
Cambodia<br />
Tel +855 23 210 814/218 846<br />
Web www.psi.org<br />
PSI/Cambodia decided to meet the need for lube by<br />
launching a water-based lubricant product and educational<br />
campaign that focused on the pleasure benefits of lube for<br />
sex workers and men who have sex with men.<br />
Population services International Cambodia (PSI/<br />
Cambodia) uses social marketing to deliver<br />
health products, services and information to lowincome<br />
and other vulnerable people. In 1994, the<br />
organization introduced the Number One brand<br />
of condoms in Cambodia along with an HIV<br />
awareness-raising campaign. As of 2002, Number<br />
One condoms were available in 97% of all brothels in<br />
Cambodia and were the market leader.<br />
While condom availability has increased in Cambodia,<br />
NGOs working with sex workers and men who have<br />
sex with men expressed a great need for water-based<br />
lubricants to be available and affordable, to increase<br />
the comfort and effectiveness of condoms and<br />
thereby encourage their use. Water-based lube can<br />
minimize condom breakage and, therefore, contribute<br />
to safer sex; but it can also increase pleasure for the<br />
penetrator and reduce vaginal and anal friction for<br />
the receptor. PSI/Cambodia decided to meet the<br />
need for lube by launching a water-based lubricant<br />
product and educational campaign that focused on<br />
the pleasure benefits of lube for sex workers and men<br />
who have sex with men.<br />
Water-based lube cannot effectively prevent HIV<br />
transmission on its own, and in fact selling lube as<br />
a stand-alone product can result in higher levels of<br />
unprotected sex. So PSI/Cambodia packaged their<br />
lubricant together with the Number One condom to<br />
create Number One Plus. Through this campaign, PSI/<br />
Cambodia used the power of pleasure to encourage<br />
people to pair condoms with lube as a way to make<br />
condoms feel better and thereby increase their use.<br />
The messaging used to advertise Number One Plus<br />
was a critical part of the campaign’s success. The<br />
key message was that Number One Plus water-based<br />
lubricant, when used with a Number One condom,<br />
makes sex safer and more pleasurable. Other key<br />
messages included: lubricant must be used with a<br />
condom; lubricant improves condoms by increasing<br />
their durability; lubricants are not a luxury item, but<br />
rather a common household good; oil-based lubes<br />
(including hair oil, body cream, cooking oils, baby oil,<br />
and petroleum jelly) can break down latex condoms,<br />
thereby decreasing their effectiveness; how much<br />
lube to use and how to use it.<br />
In addition to PSI/Cambodia’s work with other NGOs<br />
and organizations to get the word out about Number<br />
One Plus, its advertising efforts included television and<br />
radio spots, as well as point-of-sale marketing.<br />
Reaction to the campaign was slow at first,<br />
but steadily improved. Sales have exceeded<br />
expectations. In terms of implementing the<br />
campaign, PSI/Cambodia reports that there were<br />
no problems incorporating pleasure elements into<br />
their work at the Cambodia staff level, but says there<br />
were some concerns about undertaking pleasure<br />
work in their main office. There was, however, some<br />
local resistance to working with men who have sex<br />
with men as a primary target group.<br />
Sales have exceeded expectations... PSI/Cambodia<br />
reports that there were no problems incorporating<br />
pleasure elements into their work at the Cambodia<br />
staff level, but says there were some concerns about<br />
undertaking pleasure work in their main office.<br />
38
Traditionally, safer sex information can be a list of<br />
‘don’t do this, don’t do that ...’ We were trying to get<br />
into the heads of men who may be outside the ‘safer<br />
sex’ culture. It was about finding out why they get<br />
off on this type of transgressive sex, rather than just<br />
focusing on infections and harm.”<br />
Richard Scholey, Terrence Higgins Trust, UK<br />
websites<br />
39
Coalition for Positive Sexuality<br />
Secrets to great sex for teens<br />
Coalition for Positive Sexuality<br />
PO Box 77212<br />
Washington, DC 20013-7212<br />
USA<br />
Tel +1 773 604 1654<br />
Web www.positive.org<br />
...suck, kiss, touch, bite, fondle, nibble, squeeze, and<br />
lick someone’s body, nipples, calves, toes, neck, ass,<br />
dick or vulva ... jerk yourself or each other off, dry or<br />
using lots of lubricant ... kiss for a long time, using lots<br />
of tongue ... have sex in front of mirrors, or watch each<br />
other jerking off ... look at sexy pictures and videos...”<br />
from www.positive.org<br />
The Coalition for Positive Sexuality (CPS) is a grassroots,<br />
not-for-profit, activist organization which provides<br />
teenagers with candid sex education materials via its<br />
website. With the message ‘Just say yes’, CPS’s website<br />
advises teenagers that “There are lots of safe and fun<br />
ways to get off, which you probably won’t learn in<br />
school. You can do many of these things all by yourself<br />
as well as with others, and you can talk about them<br />
even if you don’t want to do them.”<br />
It provides practical, sexy information about how to<br />
have great sex (if you want to) that is also safer sex.<br />
For example: “...suck, kiss, touch, bite, fondle, nibble,<br />
squeeze, and lick someone’s body, nipples, calves,<br />
toes, neck, ass, dick or vulva ... jerk yourself or each<br />
other off, dry or using lots of lubricant ... kiss for a<br />
long time, using lots of tongue ... have sex in front<br />
of mirrors, or watch each other jerking off ... look at<br />
sexy pictures and videos ...”<br />
The website also covers condom usage, use of plastic<br />
wrap for oral sex, and other contraception and safersex<br />
information, and provides a forum for questions<br />
and answers. And CPS has cheeky, sexy posters and<br />
information booklets. One features three teenage<br />
girls whispering to each other, with the strapline ‘The<br />
secret to great sex … water-based lube’.<br />
There are lots of safe and fun ways to get off, which<br />
you probably won’t learn in school. You can do many<br />
of these things all by yourself as well as with others,<br />
and you can talk about them even if you don’t want<br />
to do them.”<br />
from www.positive.org<br />
40
Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT<br />
How lesbians can ‘love her in latex’<br />
Contact Tim Bavinton, Executive Director<br />
Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT<br />
Level 1, 28 University Avenue<br />
Canberra<br />
ACT 2601<br />
Australia<br />
Tel +61 2 6247 3077<br />
Fax +61 2 6257 5710<br />
Email tbavinton@shfpact.org.au<br />
Web www.girl2girl.info<br />
...and to remember or imagine the pleasure of your<br />
lips as you kiss her, the desire aroused by sucking her<br />
nipples or flicking your tongue across her clit. To think of<br />
how your fingers can fill her, or scrape along her back<br />
or snuggle into her arse; how your body can sink into<br />
hers; how a silk blindfold feels against your eyelids...”<br />
from www.girl2girl.info<br />
Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT (SHFPACT)<br />
Inc is a non-profit community organization providing<br />
sexual and reproductive health services to people in<br />
Canberra, Australia. Its definition of ‘safe sex’ goes<br />
beyond preventing STIs and unplanned pregnancy<br />
to include consensual, wanted, pleasurable sex<br />
each time, every time, and in the context of a<br />
positive decision to be sexually active or not, without<br />
fear of social shame or sanction.<br />
SHFPACT takes this sex-positive approach a step<br />
further with its Girl2Girl website (www.girl2girl.info).<br />
This safer-sex website for women who have sex<br />
with women features striking photos of real women<br />
getting it on and enjoying their bodies, along<br />
with sexy, fun and more serious information about<br />
pleasure, safer sex and relationships.<br />
The site invites visitors to think about the wide variety<br />
of different sexual practices that women can<br />
engage in...<br />
“...and to remember or imagine the pleasure of your<br />
lips as you kiss her, the desire aroused by sucking her<br />
nipples or flicking your tongue across her clit. To think of<br />
how your fingers can fill her, or scrape along her back<br />
or snuggle into her arse; how your body can sink into<br />
hers; how a silk blindfold feels against your eyelids...”<br />
This explicit, sexy language carries over into<br />
presenting health information in an erotic way.<br />
“If you have had sex with a woman previously, this<br />
section of the site aims to build on those experiences<br />
so that safer-sex practices can be included in your<br />
list of things which turn you on,” the site says.<br />
Sections include:<br />
• ‘Keeping it wet, keeping it wild’ about the<br />
importance of lube<br />
• ‘Love her in latex’ on how to make condoms<br />
and dental dams sexy and sex safer<br />
• ‘The low down on the down and dirty’, a table<br />
of safer-sex information organized by source of<br />
sexual stimulation (e.g., hands, mouth, sex toys).<br />
• Questions and answers from experts<br />
• Links to other resources for lesbians.<br />
The site aims to be sexy and erotic – not shying away<br />
from explicit talk about sexual practices – but also<br />
covers things like relationships, finding a partner, and<br />
sexual violence among women.<br />
41
Terrence Higgins Trust<br />
‘Hard facts for dirty buggers’<br />
Contact Richard Scholey<br />
Terrence Higgins Trust<br />
314–320 Gray’s Inn Road<br />
London, UK<br />
WC1X 8DP<br />
Email info@tht.org.uk<br />
Web www.hardcell.org.uk<br />
Lots of health resources talk about the risks of oral or<br />
anal sex, for example, but few tell you how to do it,<br />
which our site does... We know that gay men don’t<br />
get any instruction in school on this stuff.”<br />
Richard Scholey, Terrence Higgins Trust, UK<br />
Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) is one of the most wellknown<br />
and respected HIV and AIDS organizations in<br />
the UK, with cutting edge safer sex resources such as<br />
“The Arse Class”, which teaches men who have sex<br />
with men everything they’ve ever wanted to know<br />
about anal sex, health and pleasure.<br />
THT realized they had few resources for the subculture<br />
of men who have sex with men and enjoy bondage,<br />
domination and submission (BDSM), they created<br />
the Hard Cell website. BDSM involves a wide variety<br />
of sexual acts and roles – none of which people<br />
learn about in standard sex education curricula.<br />
And because BDSM, particularly among men who<br />
have sex with men, is highly stigmatized, mainstream<br />
HIV prevention programmes, campaigns and<br />
organizations rarely provide effective information<br />
about how to stay safe while still enjoying it.<br />
With the campaign slogan ‘Hard facts for dirty<br />
buggers’, the website (www.hardcell.org.uk) will<br />
be launched in May 2008, accompanied by erotic<br />
postcards and posters which will be distributed<br />
in BDSM and gay venues, website banner ads on<br />
specific gay men’s websites, and a press release.<br />
To create the website, THT conducted a focus group<br />
with 10 men from the male same-sex BDSM subculture<br />
and found they wanted a resource with a lot of<br />
sexy pictures and detailed information about how<br />
to perform or take part in a wide variety of BDSM<br />
practices. Most importantly, though, they wanted to<br />
feel that the people offering this advice understood<br />
why men get off on BDSM. THT took this advice and<br />
created an extremely explicit site that provides howto<br />
information about sexual acts and safer-sex tips,<br />
along with information about the motivation for and<br />
rewards of engaging in BDSM activities.<br />
This type of explicit, erotic resource for the male<br />
same-sex BDSM community is rare – sites that do<br />
provide information don’t tend to go into detail.<br />
According to Richard Scholey from THT’s gay men’s<br />
health promotion team, “If you really want to know<br />
more than the basics, there’s little out there from<br />
respected health promotion agencies. Lots of health<br />
resources talk about the risks of oral or anal sex, for<br />
example, but few tell you how to do it, which our<br />
site does … We know that gay men don’t get any<br />
instruction in school on this stuff.”<br />
Why does the site need so much detail? Scholey<br />
explained that, on their telephone hotline, they<br />
would get very detailed questions about sexual acts,<br />
questions like ‘can you use urine as an enema during<br />
watersports [sexual play involving urine or enemas]?’<br />
The questions went beyond basic information for<br />
beginners, and to ensure this group of men could<br />
both enjoy sex and practise it safely, it was necessary<br />
to get specific about the sex they would be having<br />
and go beyond standard or glib safer-sex messages.<br />
42
and straight people didn’t socialize at the same<br />
venues, but increasingly nowadays they do, and<br />
the owners of venues don’t want to offend straight<br />
customers with explicit posters. So the Hard Cell<br />
information will be going to men-only sex-orientated<br />
gay venues, and this, Scholey explained, is key to<br />
the campaign: it’s highly targeted and not meant<br />
for the general public, even the general community<br />
of gay men.<br />
“We get accused of perpetuating stereotypes with<br />
our images … but in the days when our leaflets<br />
didn’t show any flesh, men didn’t read them … We<br />
do have to be careful not to violate obscenity laws<br />
in the UK, so we may have lawyers review our more<br />
explicit materials before dissemination.”<br />
For other organizations, Scholey advises: “Anyone<br />
who’s going to do saucy, racy stuff needs to<br />
consider their legal position regarding obscenity. In<br />
Britain, if you can show you have a health aim for<br />
your materials, you are covered.”<br />
This sort of detail might be ‘overload’ for some<br />
groups, but the men in the BDSM same-sex<br />
community are often very sophisticated, explained<br />
Scholey, with expansive sexual experience behind<br />
them. For some other populations, “Keeping it<br />
simple may be better; otherwise you make sex<br />
seem like a minefield.” In work with young gay men,<br />
for example, THT finds it important to accentuate<br />
the positive, but this level of detail and this type of<br />
information would be totally unsuited.<br />
THT has made a conscious decision not to use its<br />
branding on the site because they feel it could<br />
put people off if the site is heavily promoted as the<br />
work of ‘the condom police’, as some might see<br />
the organization. But the organization also feels it<br />
is important to acknowledge that THT is behind the<br />
site, which will be made clear in the launch press<br />
release. THT hopes that by doing so, perceptions of<br />
the organization may change among those who think<br />
sexual health promotion is irrelevant or a ‘turn-off’.<br />
However, Scholey explained that they have never<br />
had any pressure to tone things down from the<br />
Department of Health. The gay press, he says, is<br />
different: in an attempt to become more credible<br />
and acceptable, they have clamped down on full<br />
frontal nudity and some explicit imagery, which<br />
recently led to a THT safer-sex campaign not running<br />
in some gay magazines.<br />
“Some pressure groups also monitor what we put<br />
out, looking for something to get ‘scandalized’<br />
over.” And some of the mainstream press has<br />
caused problems in the past for agencies doing<br />
supposedly ‘controversial’ sexual health promotion<br />
for gay men. “A lot of people won’t understand why<br />
we’re doing it, including a lot of gay men who may<br />
not approve,” he said. “But you can’t not meet a<br />
need just because some people, who don’t have<br />
that need, might be offended.”<br />
There are also challenges with publicizing materials<br />
explicitly aimed at gay men. In the past, gay men<br />
43
Victorian AIDS Council/<br />
Gay Men’s Health Centre<br />
Helping gay men ‘get off’ on tea towels<br />
Victorian AIDS Council/<br />
Gay Men’s Health Centre<br />
6 Claremont St<br />
South Yarra<br />
Victoria 3141<br />
Australia<br />
Tel +61 9865 6700<br />
Web www.protection.org.au<br />
Some images were also printed onto tea towels and<br />
distributed at parties, another way of getting the<br />
safer-sex message into homes. They have received<br />
feedback that the tea towels, in particular, are great<br />
talking points in men’s homes.<br />
Researchers in Australia found that there had been<br />
an increase in HIV prevalence since 2000 and that<br />
many new cases of HIV were among men who are<br />
aware of safer-sex messages, know that condoms<br />
prevent HIV, and are older. So the Victorian AIDS<br />
Council (VAC) launched a unique campaign with<br />
the message: ‘You can have lots of good sex and<br />
use condoms’.<br />
VAC’s campaign featured a super-sexy, explicit<br />
website targeted specifically at older men in the<br />
gay community. The programme’s managers<br />
explained that it is much better to do a sexy safersex<br />
campaign if it is targeted, because sexual<br />
pleasure is so subjective. The erotic images used<br />
on the website and other materials were provided<br />
for free by Australia’s only self-proclaimed safer-sex<br />
gay porn site, www.hothouse.com. The owner of<br />
Hothouse said he supported the campaign because<br />
the gay community wanted messages, not from the<br />
doctor or the Ministry of Health, but “from someone<br />
who was doing it”. The images are highly erotic,<br />
with a banner of safer-sex information covering the<br />
models’ genitals.<br />
In addition to information about ‘The basics’ and<br />
‘Testing’, the website includes pages entitled ‘Sexual<br />
Adventurism’ (about fisting, orgies, blindfolds and<br />
gags, bondage and sado-masochism, and more, in<br />
a safe and sexy way), ‘Staying Hard’ (how to keep it<br />
up with condoms), and ‘In the Heat of the Moment’<br />
(how to slip safer sex into sex play in a sexy way).<br />
VAC found that posters with the sexy images and safersex<br />
messages, which were used at sex parties, were<br />
removed from venues after couple of days. They felt<br />
this was good news because it meant the information<br />
was getting into people’s homes, and hopefully, their<br />
bedrooms. Some images were also printed onto tea<br />
towels and distributed at parties, another way of<br />
getting the safer-sex message into homes. They have<br />
received feedback that the tea towels, in particular,<br />
are great talking points in men’s homes.<br />
In addition to these materials, VAC produced a<br />
booklet with the homepage image, featuring a<br />
scratch-off banner that covers the men’s genitals.<br />
People can scratch off the banner, like a lottery<br />
card, to reveal the sexy bits underneath.<br />
...the gay community wanted messages, not from the<br />
doctor or the Ministry of Health, but “from someone who<br />
was doing it”. The images are highly erotic, with a banner<br />
of safer-sex information covering the models’ genitals.<br />
about the Victorian AIDS Council’s sexy HIV prevention campaign for gay men (www.protection.org.au), Australia<br />
44
If this delicate, taboo thing – sexual pleasure –<br />
could be negotiated by women, then almost<br />
anything can be negotiated (...and that idea<br />
gave me multiple orgasms!).”<br />
Dorothy Aken’ Ova, INCRESE, Nigeria<br />
sex education<br />
programmes,<br />
training and<br />
workshops<br />
45
Community Life Project<br />
Helping husbands become better lovers<br />
Contact Ngozi Iwere, Project Director<br />
Community Life Project<br />
9 Ilori Street, Off Ire-Akari Estate Road<br />
Isolo<br />
Lagos<br />
Nigeria<br />
Tel +234 1 791 3759, 0803 404 0077<br />
Email clpnig@yahoo.com<br />
There has been no resistance within the Churches,<br />
because you can find a lot of things within the Church<br />
to support pleasure in marriage ...The success of this<br />
work is the whole package – it succeeds because it is<br />
in the broader framework of relationships.”<br />
Ngozi Iwere, Project Director – Community Life Project, Nigeria<br />
The Community Life Project (CLP) offers educational<br />
programmes on a wide range of issues to families,<br />
couples, trade associations, churches, mosques,<br />
hospitals, and schools. According to Project Director<br />
Ngozi Iwere, several of its projects involve working on<br />
issues of pleasure in marriage with communities and<br />
with Catholic organizations.<br />
CLP works with couples by focusing on why men<br />
seek sex outside marriage, and engaging the men in<br />
dialogue and learning. “In this process of exploring<br />
fidelity we’ve learned that impotence is a huge issue<br />
for men. It’s something they want to know more<br />
about, and it’s also one of the factors encouraging<br />
them to start sexual relationships outside their<br />
marriages, in particular with younger women.” 8 CLP<br />
teaches men about sexual pleasure in the context<br />
of marriage. “With couples, it wasn’t that the men<br />
didn’t want to be faithful to their wives; it was that<br />
the sex wasn’t fulfilling for them,” said Iwere. CLP’s<br />
couples project helps men to become better at<br />
meeting their wives’ needs and increasing their<br />
wives’ pleasure. This can then increase the likelihood<br />
of fidelity and, therefore, lower risk behaviour.<br />
Iwere said that to engage men in this process,<br />
“You couldn’t just talk about HIV.” The men wanted<br />
to know about sex and about drug use, and this<br />
dialogue led them to discussions about sexual<br />
fulfilment and the options that are available.<br />
“...We do talk about what turns people on,”<br />
explained Iwere, “not by way of giving a list of<br />
turn-ons, but we talk about the fact that different<br />
people are turned on by different things, and<br />
different parts of the body excite people differently.<br />
We let them appreciate the fact that it wouldn’t<br />
help to compare their spouses to previous sexual<br />
partners and assume that a particular type of<br />
foreplay or touch or part of the body which turned<br />
on a previous lover will necessarily have a similar<br />
or the same effect on the spouse. There is a need<br />
to understand the uniqueness and individuality of<br />
everyone and take time to understand each other’s<br />
body and what gives pleasure.”<br />
She said CLP also teaches that communication about<br />
pleasure does not necessarily have to be verbal<br />
– body language is important. “They need to pay<br />
attention to how a spouse responds to touch; we call<br />
it listening with the body and the heart … they can<br />
learn a lot about what excites and what puts off the<br />
other … We talk about orgasm and how to achieve<br />
it together as much as possible or how to ensure<br />
that the woman achieves orgasm no matter what<br />
phase of her reproductive life she is in – pregnancy,<br />
breastfeeding, pre- or post-menopausal.”<br />
8<br />
From an interview given to the International Women’s Health Coalition (http://www.iwhc.org/programs/africa/nigeria/iwereinterview.cfm)<br />
46
CLP found women, as well as men, wanted a more<br />
fulfilling sexual life, “But the men expected the<br />
women to be more open to pleasure, while the<br />
women thought the men didn’t want them to know<br />
about pleasure,” explained Iwere. So CLP helped<br />
the couples to communicate. “We were working<br />
with the men, and then we asked them to bring<br />
their spouses. We organized parties, rather than a<br />
workshop or meeting, with the aim of sensitizing<br />
more people to these issues.”<br />
They also provided basic education. For example,<br />
some of the women didn’t know what orgasm was,<br />
so CLP developed a training module about women’s<br />
orgasm, but which still had its focus on how to<br />
improve the marriage.<br />
“There has been no resistance within the Churches<br />
because,” she explained, “you can find a lot of<br />
things within the Church to support pleasure in<br />
marriage … The success of this work is the whole<br />
package – it succeeds because it is in the broader<br />
framework of relationships.”<br />
According to Iwere, many of the 4000 couples<br />
CLP has worked with so far find the programme<br />
beneficial because, they say, they did not learn this<br />
stuff at school or anywhere else.<br />
In its work with Churches, CLP created a training<br />
module based on Catholic principles and beliefs.<br />
They put in information about human sexuality,<br />
violence and sexual pleasure in terms of its<br />
connection to other marital issues, for example, by<br />
pointing out that women often weren’t interested<br />
in sex when they were over-worked with domestic<br />
chores. As far as safer sex is concerned, Iwere says<br />
they reached agreement with a priest to tell couples<br />
about all methods of family planning, but to inform<br />
them that the Catholic Church only supports natural<br />
family planning. This allows the couples to make<br />
informed decisions.<br />
We do talk about what turns people on, not by way<br />
of giving a list of turn-ons, but we talk about the<br />
fact that different people are turned on by different<br />
things, and different parts of the body excite people<br />
differently. We let them appreciate the fact that it<br />
wouldn’t help to compare their spouses to previous<br />
sexual partners and assume that a particular type of<br />
foreplay or touch or part of the body which turned<br />
on a previous lover will necessarily have a similar<br />
or the same effect on the spouse. There is a need<br />
to understand the uniqueness and individuality of<br />
everyone and take time to understand each other’s<br />
body and what gives pleasure.”<br />
Ngozi Iwere, Project Director – Community Life Project, Nigeria<br />
47
CARE Cambodia – the fine art (and<br />
facts) of pleasure proficiency<br />
Contact: Ms. Socheat Chi, Reproductive<br />
Health Manager<br />
CARE International in Cambodia<br />
52, Street 352, PO Box 537<br />
Boeung Keng Kang 1<br />
Chamcar Mon<br />
Phnom Penh<br />
Cambodia<br />
Tel +855 23 215 2679<br />
Fax +855 23 426 233<br />
Email care.cam@bigpond.com.kh<br />
The training involved creating a safe space for the<br />
trainees using exercises that informed them about<br />
issues such as anatomy, as well as got them laughing<br />
and sharing their thoughts with each other about<br />
sensitive subjects such as orgasm and condoms.”<br />
about the CARE Cambodia/The Pleasure Project pleasure proficiency training<br />
CARE International is one of the world’s leading<br />
private development and relief organizations,<br />
operating in nearly 70 countries. CARE Cambodia<br />
works in partnership with disadvantaged<br />
communities as they strive to build self-reliance and<br />
make sustainable improvements in their livelihoods<br />
and environment.<br />
CARE Cambodia has developed a unique<br />
understanding of the health problems faced by<br />
garment workers and is addressing these issues in<br />
association with factory owners as part of the Sewing<br />
a Healthy Future project. This project aimed to<br />
develop local capacity to meet the needs of 50,000<br />
young garment factory workers (predominantly<br />
female) for HIV prevention and family planning<br />
information and services. Vulnerability due to<br />
migration, linked with misconceptions about sexual<br />
health issues and lack of awareness of appropriate<br />
health services increases sexual risk among this group.<br />
The training involved creating a safe space for the<br />
trainees using exercises that informed them about<br />
issues such as anatomy, as well as got them laughing<br />
and sharing their thoughts with each other about<br />
sensitive subjects such as orgasm and condoms.<br />
Some of the workshop was designed around the<br />
expressed needs of the trainees, focusing on the<br />
things they most had questions about, such as male<br />
and female sexual response and how men and<br />
women can please each other sexually.<br />
The culmination of the project was a series of<br />
exercises that CARE Cambodia could use as part<br />
of their regular training curriculum for sexual and<br />
reproductive health staff.<br />
CARE Cambodia’s Playing Safe project was<br />
designed to contribute to improved reproductive<br />
and sexual health among 20,000 young urban males<br />
in Phnom Penh. In addition to promoting safe and<br />
responsible sexual behaviour among men, it sought<br />
to increase young men’s use of health services.<br />
In 2004, Care International, with The Pleasure Project,<br />
proposed a joint range of activities to provide<br />
the first sex-positive, pleasure-promotion training<br />
package in Cambodia as part of the Sewing a<br />
Healthy Future and Playing Safe projects, as well<br />
as for other CARE programmes. This involved<br />
research into sex-positive initiatives; a ‘pleasure<br />
audit’ of CARE Cambodia’s existing training<br />
curriculum; development of a ‘pleasure proficiency’<br />
training module; and a three-day ‘Sex, Safer Sex<br />
and Pleasure’ training for CARE’s sexual health<br />
educators, facilitated by The Pleasure Project and<br />
CARE Cambodia’s training staff.<br />
Sexual pleasure brainstorming exercise<br />
from a training in Cambodia<br />
48
The Humsafar Trust<br />
Condom competitions and other<br />
sex play for gay men<br />
Contact Ashok Row Kavi, Chairperson<br />
The Humsafar Trust<br />
Old BMC Bldg, 1st & 2nd Floor<br />
Nehru Road, Vakola, Santacruz (East)<br />
Mumbai – 400055<br />
India<br />
Tel +91 22 26673800<br />
Fax +91 22 26650547<br />
Email humsafar@vsnl.com or<br />
arowkavi@vsnl.in<br />
Web www.humsafar.org<br />
The Humsafar Trust was set up in April 1994 to reach out<br />
to the gay population in the Mumbai metropolitan and<br />
surrounding areas. Today it works towards a holistic<br />
approach to the rights and health of sexual minorities<br />
and promoting rational attitudes to sexuality.<br />
One of the strategies used by Humsafar is to reduce<br />
the incidence of unprotected anal sex or make it<br />
protected by demonstrating the pleasurable use of<br />
lubricants and condoms. This is especially significant<br />
because the construction of pleasure around lubes<br />
for gay men has existed for a long time. Methods<br />
used by Humsafar include taking the focus away<br />
from anal sex by using, for example, body mapping.<br />
This helps participants understand and discuss the<br />
many different points of pleasure on the human<br />
body. This helps to eroticize the entire body and<br />
move people away from the focus on penetrative<br />
sex. It also helps to alleviate anxiety and problems<br />
related to premature ejaculation, which can<br />
traumatize some men.<br />
pleasure with regard to safer sex. The success of<br />
programmes is based on monitoring by the donors,<br />
but since the money is not being given for pleasure,<br />
they want to know why lubes are being used for ‘fun’!<br />
However, according to Ashok Row Kavi,<br />
Chairperson for the organization, safer sex cannot<br />
be addressed adequately without including<br />
pleasure. Humsafar uses a diagram with four circles<br />
representing the four essential aspects of sexuality:<br />
sexual orientation, behaviour, identity and pleasure.<br />
All four are required for a ‘balanced’ human being,<br />
and unless all four circles are addressed, it would not<br />
be possible to adequately address safer sex.<br />
A study by Humsafar in 1990 found that condom<br />
use for receptive anal sex among men in one of<br />
their project areas was about 40%, which has now<br />
been brought up to 80%, but has stopped there<br />
because the concentration of activities was only on<br />
HIV prevention. Now, to increase this percentage,<br />
the focus has shifted to pleasure or masti (playful<br />
experimentation) and on reducing the number of<br />
partners, while using lubes, condoms and other<br />
forms of sex. Another technique is to conduct<br />
‘condom-wearing competitions’ based on pleasure<br />
and speed, where participants are blindfolded.<br />
Despite the fact that 80% of HIV transmission takes<br />
place through sex, government funding means that<br />
Humsafar cannot always report on work done on<br />
SEXUAL<br />
ORIENTATION<br />
SEXUAL<br />
PLEASURE<br />
SEXUAL<br />
BEHAVIOUR<br />
SEXUAL<br />
IDENTITY<br />
Despite the fact that 80% of HIV transmission takes<br />
place through sex, government funding means that<br />
Humsafar cannot always report on work done on<br />
pleasure with regard to safer sex.<br />
49
Empowerment Concepts<br />
Sex and pleasure counselling<br />
in faith-based communities<br />
Contact David Patient<br />
Empowerment Concepts<br />
P O Box 13043<br />
Nelspruit 1200<br />
South Africa<br />
Tel +27 13 752-2564<br />
Fax +27 83 226-9466<br />
Email david@empow.co.za<br />
Web www.empowermentconcepts.com<br />
One exercise was a ‘build your own dildo competition’<br />
which required all participants to create a dildo for<br />
condom demonstration purposes out of a variety of<br />
materials. The Catholic nuns won the competition<br />
hands-down!”<br />
David Patient, Empowerment Concepts, South Africa<br />
Empowerment Concepts was formed in 1995 to<br />
provide a vehicle for combining the knowledge<br />
and experience of Neil Orr – Research Psychologist<br />
– and David Patient – one of the longest surviving<br />
people living with HIV in the world. Neil and David<br />
have created and delivered numerous interventions<br />
since 1995 in both the corporate and development<br />
sectors. Among its many activities, Empowerment<br />
Concepts helps organizations to build capacity in<br />
confronting the AIDS pandemic.<br />
One of its most innovative programmes was the Vida<br />
Positiva (Positive Living) programme in Mozambique.<br />
One of the aims of the programme was to promote<br />
safer sex among couples by tackling the primary<br />
reasons that married men said they were having sex<br />
outside of their marriages: because they were bored<br />
with their sex lives at home, which generally included<br />
one or perhaps two positions at most. Many men<br />
said that they would like better and more diverse sex<br />
at home, and that it would change their behaviour<br />
with regard to extramarital sex.<br />
When the wives were asked why they refuse to<br />
have sex other than in the standard position, their<br />
response was “I am never asked what I like in sex,<br />
if I like sex and if I even want sex, so why should I<br />
do anything that gives him pleasure? He doesn’t<br />
care about me and my sexual needs, so I will simply<br />
lie there and let him do his business. If he wants<br />
pleasure, then he must use a working girl.”<br />
According to Patient, when a man asks his wife to<br />
have sex in anything but the standard missionary<br />
position, she often accuses him of treating her like a<br />
sex worker and is offended. Family and community<br />
members may view this as a sign of disrespect. So<br />
the man justifies having sex outside his marriage by<br />
saying “I want better sex with my wife, but she won’t<br />
let me have it.”<br />
To address this problem, Vida Positiva trainers<br />
advocated for local Churches – including Catholic<br />
Churches – to teach couples better sex by getting<br />
both partners to talk openly about what they like<br />
and don’t like about sex. “Make sex amazing within<br />
the relationship,” they reasoned, “and men will not<br />
stray as much.” Thus, the number of sex partners<br />
can be reduced – a primary means of lowering STI/<br />
HIV transmission.<br />
Vida Positiva trainers explained to Church members<br />
the importance of talking more openly about sex<br />
and helped them understand that open dialogue<br />
among married couples about sex and pleasure<br />
is not a threat to culture, religion or people’s<br />
sensibilities. Also, they emphasized that, in fact, it<br />
is the moral obligation of the Church to facilitate<br />
this process, since marriage – which most religions<br />
promote – is putting people (especially women) at<br />
increased risk of contracting HIV. The arguments the<br />
trainers used to persuade Church representatives<br />
to take on sex- and pleasure-focused couples<br />
counselling included the following:<br />
• All mainstream religions strongly discourage<br />
infidelity, but to pretend that committed<br />
relationships will endure through simple ‘thou<br />
shalt not’ proscriptions is an illusion. Moreover, in<br />
a time when marriage can increase a woman’s<br />
risk of contracting HIV, it is a deadly illusion.<br />
50
All mainstream religions strongly discourage infidelity,<br />
but to pretend that committed relationships will<br />
endure through simple ‘thou shalt not’ proscriptions<br />
is an illusion. Moreover, in a time when marriage can<br />
increase a woman’s risk of contracting HIV, it is a<br />
deadly illusion.<br />
• It is important to update commitments to<br />
protecting the sanctity of marriage and get<br />
more involved in the mechanics of the process.<br />
Married people need help, and they need it<br />
from people they trust.<br />
• Religious representatives were asked to<br />
imagine the following scenario: a young couple<br />
approaches their families to inform them that<br />
they are in love and intend to marry. The families<br />
make an appointment with the minister/priest<br />
of their religion and, over the next six months –<br />
individually at first, and then later as a couple<br />
– the two are given instructions in the art of<br />
relationships, trust, communication and sex. They<br />
don’t have sex until they get married. The couple<br />
discuss love, love-making, fears, pleasures,<br />
children, their future, and a range of issues that<br />
create an intimate bond of understanding and<br />
trust. During the first few months of marriage, the<br />
instruction continues, with exercises to enhance<br />
sexual experiences and to consolidate trust and<br />
communications. Breathing and muscle control<br />
exercises are included to prolong orgasm, and<br />
they are given information about the difference<br />
between orgasm and ejaculation and a range<br />
of other issues that ensures that the sexual<br />
experience between the husband and wife is<br />
of such a nature that sex outside of marriage<br />
becomes unthinkable.<br />
In addition to presenting convincing arguments to<br />
spiritual/religious representatives, Vida Positiva trainers<br />
also worked to increase their knowledge of and comfort<br />
with sexual topics and information. One exercise<br />
was a ‘build your own dildo’ competition which<br />
required all participants to create a dildo for condom<br />
demonstration purposes out of a variety of materials.<br />
The Catholic nuns won the competition hands-down!<br />
Overall, Patient and Orr say that putting HIV,<br />
gender and equity issues into a context that Church<br />
representatives can understand and introducing<br />
topics related to people’s sex lives in a nonthreatening<br />
way were the first steps to enabling these<br />
sexually inactive people to address issues of sex.<br />
While Empowerment Concepts’ role in the programme<br />
ended several years ago, their work on the Vida<br />
Positiva programme remains a useful example of<br />
how to harness the power of sexual pleasure within<br />
traditional and conservative environments.<br />
...Vida Positiva trainers advocated for local Churches –<br />
including Catholic Churches – to teach couples better<br />
sex by getting both partners to talk openly about what<br />
they like and don’t like about sex. “Make sex amazing<br />
within the relationship,” they reasoned, “and men will<br />
not stray as much.”<br />
David Patient, Empowerment Concepts, South Africa<br />
51
INCRESE (International Centre for<br />
Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights)<br />
Pleasure, empowerment...<br />
and multiple orgasms!!<br />
Contact Dorothy Aken ‘Ova<br />
INCRESE<br />
1E Bosso Road, Beside Fire Service, (P.O. Box 904)<br />
Minna 930001<br />
Niger State, Nigeria<br />
Tel +234 66 223 119<br />
Fax +234 66 223 119<br />
Email increse2001@yahoo.co.uk<br />
Web www.increse-increse.org<br />
People thought we were wasting time talking about<br />
sex and pleasure, when maternal mortality is so high …<br />
But I was convinced that if this delicate, taboo thing –<br />
sexual pleasure – could be negotiated by women, then<br />
almost anything can be negotiated (...and that idea<br />
gave me multiple orgasms!)”<br />
Dorothy Aken’ Ova, INCRESE, Nigeria<br />
The International Centre for Reproductive Health and<br />
Sexual rights (INCRESE) is a Nigerian NGO working to<br />
improve the environment for and expand access to<br />
sexual health and rights information and services. One<br />
of its primary areas of work is to increase women’s<br />
sexual pleasure as a way to reduce domestic violence,<br />
HIV and other STIs, and unwanted pregnancy.<br />
Despite a common belief in the sexual health and HIV<br />
prevention sector that focusing on sexual pleasure<br />
is impossible in religious or culturally conservative<br />
environments, INCRESE is showing that it can be done:<br />
its offices are in a Sharia state, where jurisdiction is<br />
based on Muslim law.<br />
According to Dorothy Aken’ Ova, Founder of<br />
INCRESE, through its research the organization found<br />
that traditional sexuality educators focus on men’s<br />
pleasure and the problems men encounter which<br />
reduce their pleasure; for example, they discuss the<br />
creams and herbs a woman can use to increase<br />
men’s satisfaction. At the same time, explains Aken’<br />
Ova, “Women are not supposed to be enjoying<br />
Despite a common belief in the sexual health<br />
and HIV prevention sector that focusing on sexual<br />
pleasure is impossible in religious or culturally<br />
conservative environments, INCRESE is showing that<br />
it can be done: its offices are in a Sharia state, where<br />
jurisdiction is based on Muslim law.<br />
52
sexual relations.” She told a story of a man who<br />
divorced his wife because she was moaning during<br />
sex. “A woman is considered to be of low virtue if she<br />
asks for sex.” In fact, women were often beaten if<br />
they asked for sex from their husbands.<br />
Aken’ Ova and the INCRESE staff see their focus<br />
on women’s sexual pleasure as a step towards<br />
empowerment and a way to reduce violence. They<br />
have found that men didn’t know what women’s<br />
sexual needs were – the men thought that their<br />
ejaculation caused pleasure, so they didn’t want to<br />
use condoms. The men also thought that long-lasting<br />
erections equalled pleasure.<br />
Aken’ Ova and her staff, however, have also found that<br />
men are willing to learn how to pleasure their wives, and<br />
many even ask why their wives didn’t tell them before!<br />
But the reality is that most of the men hadn’t asked in a<br />
way that the woman could tell them, and the women<br />
didn’t want to dash their husband’s egos, especially,<br />
said Aken’ Ova, “When he’s not even asking me if I<br />
‘came’ at all, but how many times I came!”<br />
people pleasure. INCRESE instructors encourage the<br />
participants to discuss what they enjoy and what they<br />
don’t. For example, women who have undergone<br />
female genital mutilation (FGM) are often made to<br />
feel as if their sex life is over, so Aken’ Ova and her<br />
staff work to restore the woman’s confidence and self<br />
esteem, then help her to understand how to discover<br />
other erogenous zones, use lubricants, and engage<br />
in more intense foreplay. One husband participant<br />
explained that, no matter what he tried, his partner<br />
was not experiencing pleasure, and he didn’t know<br />
that she had undergone FGM because he did not<br />
know what a ‘normal’ vulva looked like.<br />
The staff at INCRESE realized that to teach couples to<br />
have good sex they needed to create a harmonious<br />
relationship, free of violence, and to teach pleasure<br />
they had to teach how to seduce and flirt. So the<br />
next manual in the series covers these topics. “Often<br />
there are fewer fights between husbands and wives<br />
because they spend the whole day trying to seduce<br />
each other,” explained Aken’ Ova.<br />
INCRESE instructors encourage the participants to<br />
discuss what they enjoy and what they don’t. For<br />
example, women who have undergone female<br />
genital mutilation (FGM) are often made to feel as if<br />
their sex life is over, so Aken’ Ova and her staff work<br />
to restore the woman’s confidence and self esteem,<br />
then help her to understand how to discover other<br />
erogenous zones, use lubricants, and engage in<br />
more intense foreplay.<br />
Initially, INCRESE started discussions with a group of<br />
women, and then decided they needed to include<br />
the men – if they work with women alone, men fear<br />
the women will become unruly and want sex outside<br />
of marriage. They set up their Couples Support Project,<br />
which includes an initial baseline study in a community,<br />
followed by giving feedback on the results, and<br />
providing information about sexual health and rights.<br />
After that, they ask couples to register for the couples<br />
programme, aiming to get both partners to come to<br />
the sessions. If a man is polygamous, they have him<br />
register with one of his wives. They then use a series of<br />
unique pleasure-oriented sexuality education manuals<br />
which they designed for use with couples.<br />
The first manual focuses on anatomy and physiology,<br />
to enable the couples to come to terms with their<br />
bodies. “What does your vulva look like?” they ask,<br />
and instruct participants to go home and look at<br />
and touch their own bodies. Other manuals are on<br />
the human sexual response cycle and human sexual<br />
behaviour, including the diverse things that give<br />
They give the couples take-home assignments that<br />
focus on issues related to risk. The exercises are very<br />
intimate, and through them people learn how to<br />
communicate, touch and discuss what feels good.<br />
The men learn that their wives cannot relax if the man<br />
is seeing other women, and that the women will have<br />
less pleasure if they are afraid of STIs or unwanted<br />
pregnancy. They learn about dual protection methods<br />
to prevent both infections and pregnancy.<br />
To augment the training, INCRESE has a wooden<br />
cabinet filled with sex toys, which the staff uses to<br />
teach couples how to increase pleasure for each<br />
other. INCRESE also provides counselling on a one-toone<br />
basis, addressing issues such as sexual dysfunction,<br />
masturbation, and relationship problems.<br />
The sex educators at INCRESE are screened before<br />
they are allowed to teach. They must address their<br />
own sexual history and maturity, which they explore<br />
using a ‘sexual mapping’, a values-clarification<br />
exercise and a follow-up meeting to ensure they have<br />
adequately dealt with any of their own sexual issues.<br />
53
Institute of International Social Development<br />
The Kama Sutra for sex workers<br />
Institute of International Social Development<br />
P65 Lake View Road<br />
Calcutta 700029, India<br />
Tel +91 33 2466 2056; +91 33 2466 5597;<br />
+91 33 2466 6735; +91 33 2466 4014<br />
Fax +91 33 2463 9372<br />
The Institute of International Social Development<br />
(IISD) is an NGO in India working for the prevention<br />
and treatment of HIV and AIDS, and to support<br />
sex workers and other groups in Calcutta and<br />
surrounding rural areas. With support from the<br />
Government in India’s West Bengal State, it has<br />
offered training to sex workers based on the Kama<br />
Sutra. IISD found that many sex workers were seeing<br />
up to five clients each day, and each encounter<br />
put them at risk of STIs like HIV, and unwanted<br />
pregnancy. In an effort to help sex workers give<br />
pleasure to clients while also reducing the risk of<br />
infection and pregnancy, IISD encouraged the sex<br />
workers to give clients more than just intercourse,<br />
such as dancing and non-penetrative sex, inspired<br />
by many of the illustrations in the Kama Sutra.<br />
In situations where clients refuse to use condoms, learning<br />
non-penetrative sex and erotic techniques enables<br />
sex workers to provide pleasure without intercourse.<br />
The People’s Health Organisation<br />
‘More positions with one partner...’,<br />
the Kama Sutra for sex workers<br />
Contact Dr. Ishwar S. Gilada,<br />
Secretary General<br />
The People’s Health Organisation<br />
Email gilada@usa.net or<br />
ihoaids@vsnl.com<br />
The People’s Health Organisation is an NGO lead<br />
by Dr. Ishwar S. Gilada, a leading Indian AIDS<br />
campaigner and founder of the Saheli project,<br />
which educates sex workers in India. Gilada has<br />
used the Kama Sutra to teach safer sex, promoting<br />
the idea that ‘many postures with one is better<br />
than one posture with many’ to express a unique<br />
prevention message. Trainings with sex workers<br />
are based on discussion and education about the<br />
benefits of erotic pleasure as detailed in the Kama<br />
Sutra, as a means for keeping a client satisfied<br />
without penetrative sex, and ultimately reducing the<br />
number of clients a sex worker has without reducing<br />
income. According to Gilada:<br />
The Kama Sutra is not a pornographic work. It is the art<br />
of living for the civilized and refined citizen, completing<br />
the sphere of love, eroticism and the pleasures of life.<br />
Within Hinduism sex is sacramental, essential to life,<br />
and so worthy of serious study.”<br />
Dr. Ishwar S. Gilada, The People’s Health Organisation, India<br />
54
Making Sex Work Safe workshops<br />
Sex workers share tips for safe sex<br />
and client satisfaction<br />
Contact Cheryl Overs<br />
The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers<br />
Email cherylovers@gmail.com<br />
Web http://apnsw.org<br />
A Mongolian sex worker once said the workshop led<br />
her to see that just telling people to use condoms is<br />
like telling someone to use a saddle to ride a horse –<br />
‘there’s a lot more to both safe sex and horse riding!”<br />
Cheryl Overs, Trainer, Australia/Asia<br />
The Making Sex Work Safe workshops were designed<br />
with the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers to<br />
build the capacity of sex workers. They have been<br />
conducted in nine countries with sex workers from<br />
throughout Asia, and more recently in Africa.<br />
The guiding principle of the course is for sex workers<br />
themselves to articulate and analyse the human<br />
rights and health issues that make them vulnerable<br />
to HIV, violence and human rights abuses. The safe<br />
sex part of the curriculum engages with and builds<br />
upon the power and successes sex workers already<br />
have by harnessing their expertise. This enables them<br />
to develop the skills needed to survive and earn a<br />
living by providing commercial sexual services.<br />
According to Cheryl Overs, one of the creators of<br />
the Making Sex Work Safe workshops, “Levels of<br />
success at safe sex vary enormously among sex<br />
workers … but therein may lie the key to the success<br />
of the workshops: in any group of sex workers there<br />
are almost always women who achieve safe sex<br />
little of the time or never, some who have moderate<br />
success, and some who attain 100% condom use<br />
with customers, even in places where condoms<br />
are not the norm. This makes pooling and sharing<br />
knowledge and safe sex tips uniquely valuable.”<br />
The workshops begin by talking about what sex<br />
workers want from commercial transactions and<br />
differentiating that from sex with private partners.<br />
“Then we talk about what clients want. This sets us<br />
up to address ways to reduce the length of time<br />
and the intrusiveness of the commercial transaction,<br />
while keeping it safe and providing the pleasure and<br />
excitement that drives tips and return customers,”<br />
explained Overs. “We do this through lots of different<br />
exercises aimed – not just at negotiating safe sex –<br />
but at doing safe sex.”<br />
In one exercise, participants identify a set of real life<br />
‘safe-sex problems’, which typically include things<br />
like not having access to a bed and a condom, or<br />
the client not having a strong enough erection for a<br />
condom, being too drunk or deliberately breaking<br />
a condom. Then the sex workers work in pairs to<br />
articulate the ‘safe-sex solutions’ which can be used<br />
in those situations. These strategies include:<br />
• ways to apply and maintain condoms<br />
• positions that reduce friction and limit clients’<br />
access to breasts, mouth and vagina<br />
• non-penetrative alternatives<br />
• ways to make clients ejaculate most quickly<br />
• ...and much more.<br />
These are usually acted out in hilarious sessions<br />
before becoming tips in training manuals, booklets<br />
or flipcharts, and the evaluation of these sessions<br />
has shown the highest possible ratings, said Overs.<br />
Sometimes responses from sex workers have been<br />
angry, such as ‘why are endless lectures, and<br />
watching people rolling a condom on to a wooden<br />
penis, the only form of safe sex training we get as sex<br />
workers? Why is this quality of training not available<br />
to all sex workers?’ A very old woman working as a<br />
cleaner in India, who had observed the workshop,<br />
went further. To our amazement she dashed in to<br />
the feedback session and demanded that such<br />
explicit sex education should be available to all<br />
women because “all women have to handle men”.<br />
According to Overs, “We thought she was going to<br />
complain about the fake orgasm demonstration!”<br />
Some of the unique concepts behind the Making<br />
Sex Work Safe workshops are adapted from the<br />
global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) 1997<br />
book Making Sex Work Safe: a guide for programme<br />
managers, field workers and policy makers.<br />
55
MEXFAM<br />
Promoting a ‘Vida Erótica y Protegida’<br />
(Erotic and Protected Life)<br />
Contact Ofelia Aguilar<br />
Fundacion Mexicana para la Planeacion<br />
Familiar A.C. (MEXFAM)<br />
Juárez 208, Col. Tlalpan<br />
Mexico D.F. 14000, Mexico<br />
Tel +52 (55) 5487-0030<br />
Fax +52 (55) 5487-0042<br />
Web mexinfo@mexfam.org.mx<br />
Our approach is showing them that the condom...<br />
can generate pleasure... it’s like an invitation to<br />
improve your sex life!”<br />
Ofelia Aguilar, MEXFAM<br />
MEXFAM is the national family planning association<br />
in Mexico, which works in 25 of the 32 Mexican<br />
states with the mission to provide quality family<br />
planning and reproductive health services and sex<br />
education. MEXFAM’s Gente Joven (Young People)<br />
programme reaches teenagers in their communities and<br />
trains some of them to be youth promoters to counsel<br />
their peers about family life and reproductive health.<br />
In 2003, MEXFAM began a series of workshops called<br />
‘Erotic and Protected Life’ which focus on pleasure,<br />
love, respect, communication, and safe and<br />
protected sex. The workshop was designed to enable<br />
participants (young people, men and women, from all<br />
sexual orientations and HIV status) to develop abilities<br />
to achieve greater eroticization and sexual pleasure<br />
during their encounters, in a way that is protected from<br />
STIs and HIV. Using games, participants learn about a<br />
wide range of condoms – different colours, odours, forms,<br />
textures, and latex dams for oral sex – as well as about<br />
sensual safer-sex practices like massage. The workshop is<br />
divided into two sections: specific techniques for safe sex<br />
and other techniques for protected sex.<br />
Safe sex consists of individual and shared sexual<br />
eroticization, through kisses, caresses, rubbing, words,<br />
aromas, massages, etc. It does not include vaginal,<br />
anal or oral penetration, and involves avoiding<br />
contact with sexual fluids, although these may touch<br />
healthy, uninjured skin. In the case of stimulation with<br />
fingers, it is important to use finger cots (a device<br />
resembling a male condom used to cover the<br />
fingers) or latex gloves, as well as flavoured or natural<br />
lubricants, to make safe sex feel good.<br />
you change everything … the [traditional] messages<br />
about condom use are always negative and focused on<br />
preventing illnesses or pregnancies … by our change<br />
of focus you gain better possibilities of acceptance...”<br />
These workshops have been held for young people as<br />
well as service providers (doctors, nurses, psychologists)<br />
youth promoters, parents and teachers – all of whom<br />
have responded favourably and indicated they<br />
enjoyed themselves and learned.<br />
MEXFAM has about 13 condonerías (condom stores) in<br />
youth clinics as well as in clinics which provide services<br />
to adult clients around the country. The purpose of the<br />
condonerías is to create an erotic and creative space<br />
in which young people can find educational and erotic<br />
material and a variety of condoms and accessories for<br />
sexual acts that are more pleasurable and protected.<br />
MEXFAM provides specific guidelines for developing<br />
the condonerías, which can often be seen as a space<br />
for men, to the exclusion of women. Therefore, they<br />
point out that it is important to create conditions to<br />
attract women, for example, by having clearly visible<br />
information about female condoms and emergency<br />
contraception. Condonerías, they say, should be a place<br />
that is visited by men and women of all ages. It should be<br />
a place that encourages all generations and genders to<br />
meet and seek their sexual pleasure and enjoyment.<br />
Protected sex consists of using latex or polyurethane<br />
barriers to avoid contact with sexual fluids of women or<br />
men who have an STI, including: the female condom,<br />
male condom, and plastics like cling film, which are<br />
useful during oral and anal sex.<br />
According to MEXFAM’s Ofelia Aguilar, this project “...is very<br />
revealing … by making the use of condoms attractive,<br />
56
The Naz Foundation (India) Trust<br />
Alternative pleasures for men<br />
who have sex with men<br />
Contact Anuradha Mukherjee,<br />
Programmes Manager<br />
The Naz Foundation (India) Trust<br />
A -86, East of Kailash<br />
New Delhi 110065<br />
India<br />
Tel +91 11 2691 0499 or +91 11 4132 5042<br />
Email anuradha@nazindia.org<br />
Web www.nazindia.org<br />
One example is the ‘Garden of life’ exercise. Here,<br />
participants talk about their life priorities (wife,<br />
children, home, job, etc.) and list them on pre-cut<br />
paper ‘flowers’. These are then further prioritized<br />
with ‘pleasure’ forming the centre around which the<br />
other priorities are placed according to how far or<br />
how close they are to pleasure.<br />
Anuradha Mukherjee, Programmes Manager, The Naz Foundation (India) Trust<br />
New Delhi-based NGO The Naz Foundation (India) Trust<br />
has been providing HIV and sexual health information<br />
and services since 1995. Through the years, Naz India’s<br />
work has evolved into a holistic approach to combat<br />
HIV, focusing on prevention as well as treatment. The<br />
focus is on reaching out to marginalized populations<br />
living with and affected by HIV and to sensitize the<br />
community to the prevalence of HIV, while highlighting<br />
issues related to sexuality and sexual health.<br />
Naz is working with a range of groups, including young<br />
people, people of marginalized sexualities, and families<br />
and children living with or affected by HIV, and employs<br />
different approaches for work with each of them. Naz<br />
has developed modules for each target group, with<br />
games, films, presentations, and case studies.<br />
One example is the ‘Garden of life’ exercise. Here,<br />
participants talk about their life priorities (wife,<br />
children, home, job, etc.) and list them on pre-cut<br />
paper ‘flowers’. These are then further prioritized<br />
with ‘pleasure’ forming the centre around which<br />
the other priorities are placed according to how far<br />
or how close they are to pleasure. Often ‘wife’ will<br />
be placed at a distance from pleasure, while other<br />
sexual partners may be placed closer. However, as<br />
the discussion progresses, many participants realize<br />
that their wives can also be a source of pleasure! For<br />
gay men, pleasure is mostly associated with multiple<br />
sexual partners and the size of the penis. These<br />
notions are also re-evaluated through this exercise.<br />
With young people in schools and colleges, the<br />
entry point to talking about sexuality and sexual<br />
health is HIV, and they use peer education. Although<br />
school authorities ask Naz not to talk about sex<br />
and condoms, questions about sex and condoms<br />
always come up at the end of the sessions. Naz’s<br />
sexuality education with young people has revealed<br />
that most girls have very little knowledge of sexual<br />
pleasure, and when discussing female anatomy,<br />
it emerges that many girls don’t know about the<br />
clitoris. Most questions from girls are about issues<br />
such as menstruation and childbirth. Boys, on the<br />
other hand, talk more about pleasure, and the most<br />
common questions from them are about things like<br />
masturbation and ‘wet dreams’.<br />
When talking to men who have sex with men,<br />
especially kothis (the Indian term for feminized<br />
homosexual males) and their partners, Naz educators<br />
discuss different types of sexual acts which give equal<br />
or more pleasure than anal sex; and men are taught<br />
to put condoms onto their partners using their mouth,<br />
to increase pleasure for both partners.<br />
Naz also has a home-based care programme for<br />
people living with HIV, and in its counselling with serodiscordant<br />
couples, pleasure and safer sex are usually<br />
part of the discussion.<br />
The organization also works with external stakeholders,<br />
such as the police, to sensitize them about issues<br />
related to sexuality as it relates to HIV prevention.<br />
Many members of the police force see men who have<br />
sex with men and transgender people as ‘carriers of<br />
AIDS’ who have anal sex because they’re frustrated.<br />
Naz facilitates discussion about this, and brings up the<br />
fact that these people may actually enjoy and find<br />
pleasure in their sexual acts. This can help to demystify<br />
issues around sexuality, which can reduce the stigma<br />
and discrimination against people who engage in<br />
marginalized sexual practices.<br />
57
Nirantar<br />
Sex-positive sex education<br />
(with aubergine dildos!)<br />
Nirantar<br />
A Centre for Gender and Education<br />
Contact Jaya Sharma<br />
B-64 Second Floor<br />
Sarvodya Enclave<br />
New Delhi 110017<br />
India<br />
Tel (91-11) 2-696-6334<br />
Fax (91-11) 2-651-7726<br />
Email nirantar@vsnl.com<br />
Web www.nirantar.net<br />
The workshops have … allowed rural women to discuss<br />
the merits of the different root vegetables in their<br />
kitchen gardens as dildos. They talked about how using<br />
condoms on aubergines [eggplants] is ‘safer-sex’, but<br />
not in the typical sense: aubergines can disintegrate<br />
inside the vagina, so the condom prevents this and<br />
makes it safer. Perhaps that’s why vegetable gardening<br />
is one of the more popular development schemes!”<br />
Jaya Sharma, Nirantar, India<br />
For 14 years Nirantar has been working with<br />
disadvantaged groups in India in a variety of ways,<br />
including helping them to control and own the<br />
means of production for their work (for example,<br />
they helped a group of Dalit women to produce<br />
their own newspaper). It also creates educational<br />
materials, does research, advocacy and training<br />
and manages a resource centre on gender and<br />
education issues. In 2007, Nirantar started providing<br />
sexuality education to women activists through<br />
workshops and materials, which are produced<br />
in Hindi, and which address broad notions of sex<br />
education, including the possibility of pleasure.<br />
Nirantar’s sexuality education initiative operates<br />
with the understanding that women’s organizations<br />
need to address issues of sexuality in a manner that is<br />
positive and makes linkages with power. For example,<br />
Jaya Sharma of Nirantar explained that it’s important<br />
not just to talk about avoiding violence or exclusively<br />
about heterosexual sex; we need broader possibilities,<br />
such as discussion of pleasure and diverse sexualities.<br />
“I find the workshops empowering even for myself …<br />
[Before, I] was not very comfortable talking about sex,<br />
although I could hold forth on sexuality ad nauseum.<br />
I now really enjoy talking about sex and relationships<br />
and not only in a serious political way – but a fun way.”<br />
Some participants have told her about the links they<br />
found between sexuality and empowerment: “If sex<br />
feels good,” they said, “[it] gives us energy, makes us<br />
happy; if I feel better it will show in my activism – I’ll<br />
feel more at ease in my body.”<br />
Nirantar has helped local women’s organizations<br />
in both rural and urban slum areas to host sexuality<br />
education workshops which deal with sexuality in<br />
a positive way, help to encourage dialogue about<br />
sexuality and sex, and address marginalized issues,<br />
58
such as queer desire, disability and so-called gender<br />
‘transgressions’. They do this by creating a favourable<br />
environment for frank discussion and using specific<br />
exercises. For example, they ask women participants<br />
to make a list of sex acts, which can lead into<br />
discussions of positive and negative word associations<br />
related to sex acts. The number of positive words the<br />
participants use is a good indication of how positively<br />
they view sex and sexuality. This level of ‘positivity’<br />
regarding sex often changes as the workshop<br />
progresses and the participants become better<br />
informed and more open to discussions related to sex.<br />
Participants have said that the workshops allow them<br />
to initiate activities and talk openly about sensitive<br />
issues. For example, masturbation is discussed openly,<br />
and after the workshops, some of the participants<br />
say they have initiated anal sex for the first time in<br />
their lives. Sharma says that the workshops have also<br />
allowed rural women to discuss the merits of the<br />
different root vegetables in their kitchen gardens as<br />
dildos! They talked about how using condoms on<br />
aubergines [eggplants] is ‘safer-sex’, but not in the<br />
typical sense: aubergines can disintegrate inside<br />
the vagina, so the condom prevents this and makes<br />
it safer. Perhaps, Sharma suggested, “that’s why<br />
vegetable gardening is one of the more popular<br />
development schemes!”<br />
Sharma also said there are difficulties in introducing<br />
this positive approach to sex education. Hierarchies<br />
that exist among the groups of participants make it<br />
more difficult to encourage open discussion. Formal<br />
education, says Sharma, can create inhibitions about<br />
what you should and should not talk about. For<br />
example, the women with less education can be less<br />
inhibited, which may mean that school sex education<br />
can inhibit open sexual discussion. Sharma points out<br />
that, for example, wedding songs in rural India used<br />
to be very raunchy and sexual, but many people now<br />
feel that they shouldn’t sing them. She sees this as a<br />
great loss, and as part of the phenomenon of cultural<br />
practises getting more formalized. She also feels that<br />
the HIV- and AIDS-driven agenda for sex education,<br />
particularly for young people, is creating more barriers<br />
to good, broad-based sexuality education. “The<br />
framework tends to be one of behaviour change,<br />
which often includes promotion of abstinence and<br />
highly moralistic and disciplining discourses.”<br />
I find the workshops empowering even for myself …<br />
[Before, I] was not very comfortable talking about sex,<br />
although I could hold forth on sexuality ad nauseum.<br />
I now really enjoy talking about sex and relationships<br />
and not only in a serious political way – but a fun way.”<br />
Jaya Sharma, Nirantar, India<br />
Sonagachi Project/Durbar Mahila<br />
Samanwaya Committee<br />
Super sex-positive support for sex workers<br />
DURBAR<br />
12/5 Nilmoni Mitra Street<br />
Kolkata<br />
West Bengal<br />
India<br />
Tel +91 33 2530 3148<br />
Email dm_sc@sify.com<br />
Web www.durbar.org<br />
Sonagachi is a sex workers co-operative and forum<br />
in West Bengal, with some 65,000 members. It is<br />
run by the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee<br />
(or Durbar), which takes a pioneering sex-positive<br />
approach to sex workers rights and health, and<br />
has had amazing success in lowering rates of HIV.<br />
Among their many groundbreaking projects and<br />
achievements, they have used the Kama Sutra to<br />
teach sex workers how to give clients a high degree<br />
of sexual pleasure with less penetrative sex. They<br />
have also shared information about sexy safer-sex<br />
techniques and tips in workshops.<br />
59
The Pleasure Project<br />
Putting the sexy into safer sex<br />
Contact Anne Philpott or Wendy Knerr<br />
The Pleasure Project<br />
Tel UK +44 7962 545 160 or<br />
Tel India +91 99 5311 0958<br />
Web www.thepleasureproject.org<br />
I’ve always been keen on condoms, but seeing<br />
a man put one on and be unabashed was a<br />
revelation. My favourite move is when he puts it<br />
on, looking me in the eye. It’s the best turn-on.<br />
He’s saying, “I’m ready – are you?”<br />
Anne Philpott, quoted in Cosmo magazine (March 2005)<br />
The Pleasure Project is an educational organization<br />
which aims to make sex education sexy and to<br />
eroticize safer sex. It provides harm reduction<br />
training and materials aimed at helping to reduce<br />
the loss of pleasure during safer sex, which makes<br />
safer sex more attractive, increasing the practice of<br />
safer sex and reducing the incidence of STIs.<br />
Launched in 2004, The Pleasure Project has<br />
undertaken a wide range of initiatives to raise<br />
awareness of the need for sex-positive, erotic safersex<br />
and HIV prevention education, and to build the<br />
capacity of people and organizations working in<br />
sexual health, sex education, reproductive health<br />
and HIV and AIDS.<br />
Pleasure proficiency workshops in Sri Lanka and the UK<br />
60
Poster used at the Women Deliver conference in London<br />
Projects include:<br />
• designing and facilitating ‘Pleasure Proficiency<br />
Training’ for sexual health educators in<br />
Cambodia, in conjunction with CARE Cambodia<br />
(see page 48), and at the CHAPS gay men’s<br />
sexual health conference in the UK, in 2008;<br />
• designing and facilitating ‘Pleasures of the<br />
Female Condom Training’, in conjunction with<br />
the Female Health Company, for Positively<br />
Women counsellors working with HIV-positive<br />
African women in London (see page 34);<br />
• researching and writing articles about pleasure<br />
and safer sex in The Lancet (Viewpoint article,<br />
December 2006), Reproductive Health Matters<br />
(Winter 2006), and other publications;<br />
• facilitating erotic safer-sex workshops at annual<br />
AIDS conferences, including those in Bangkok,<br />
Thailand (2004), Toronto, Canada (2006), and<br />
Colombo, Sri Lanka (2007);<br />
• working with erotic film-makers to help integrate<br />
male and female condoms and non-penetrative<br />
sex into porn films (see Anna Span page 25, and<br />
Modern Loving page 28);<br />
• advocating for more sex-positive approaches<br />
to safer sex through the media (e.g. The Times,<br />
The Guardian, and the Sydney Morning Herald)<br />
and at conferences (e.g. the Women Deliver<br />
maternal health conference in the UK, 2007);<br />
• speaking to physicians and sex therapists at<br />
conferences and forums, including the Royal<br />
Society of Medicine in 2008; and<br />
• creating resources for eroticizing safer sex, such<br />
as Sexy Tips postcards, website information and<br />
training materials.<br />
Sexy tips postcard for HIV-positive women<br />
Pleasure body mapping poster from pleasure workshop,<br />
Sri Lanka<br />
61
Sensoa<br />
Oral, vaginal, anal … and verbal?<br />
Communication skills for young lovers<br />
Contact Telidja Klai<br />
Sensoa<br />
Meersstraat 138d<br />
9000 Gent<br />
Belgium<br />
Tel +32 9 221 07 22<br />
Fax +32 9 220 84 06<br />
Email info@sensoa.be<br />
Web www.sensoa.be<br />
It is not a campaign about (promoting) anonymous<br />
sex, it is about sexuality and the focus is on respect<br />
for each other. It considers sexuality as a form of<br />
development, in which people respect and recognize<br />
each other’s limits and wishes. And there is only one<br />
‘right’ way to know these limits: Talk about sex!”<br />
Sensoa website<br />
Sensoa, the Flemish centre of expertise on sexual<br />
health and HIV and AIDS in Belgium, started an<br />
innovative, comprehensive sex education project<br />
for young people called ‘Good Lovers’ in 1999. The<br />
project includes a forum for sex education, games<br />
(goede minnaars werkmap), video (wegwijs in de<br />
seks), brochures for young people (een lief, hie je het<br />
doet en hoe doe je’t goed?), a campaign about<br />
sex and communication, and a striking exhibition on<br />
good sex (carousel Good Lovers).<br />
In the past few years, Sensoa has broadened the<br />
Good Lovers project to include small children and<br />
teenagers in a project called ‘2 Bears’, which is an<br />
interactive exhibition with materials for teachers and<br />
parents. Good Lovers now also includes information<br />
on communication and the Internet called<br />
‘Connected’, and for 2008 Sensoa is planning to<br />
digitalize the exercises for Good Lovers and create a<br />
Good Lovers Game.<br />
© Sensoa<br />
© Sensoa<br />
The Good Lovers exhibition is highly interactive and<br />
provides information about personal relationships<br />
and sexuality for children from ages three to 18<br />
years, and their parents. The exhibition area for<br />
teenagers features information about condoms,<br />
good communication with partners, and other<br />
instructional elements. One display at the exhibition<br />
features a Kama Sutra-style poster featuring<br />
drawings of people in various sexual positions. Visitors<br />
are asked to connect the image with a description<br />
of the sexual position being performed. The purpose<br />
of the game, explained Sensoa’s Telidja Klai, is to<br />
widen the meaning of sexuality in a fun way.<br />
The multimedia campaign ‘Praat over seks!’ (Talk<br />
about sex!) is a racy, sexy, thought-provoking<br />
campaign aimed at people 20 to 30 years old, who<br />
are gay, straight or heterosexual. Advertisements<br />
and posters for the campaign feature explicit<br />
images of people having sex – women with men,<br />
men with men, and women with women – and<br />
62
offers intermediaries such as teachers educational<br />
tools which may help them to talk about sex and<br />
communication in the classroom.<br />
The campaign was much talked about in the media<br />
and in public. The television spot, in particular,<br />
received widespread approval. And initial fears<br />
that the explicit images would distract attention<br />
from the message appeared to be unfounded.<br />
The organization conducted a pre-test before the<br />
campaign, and will conduct a post-test to measure<br />
the effects of the campaign one month after<br />
showing the last images.<br />
© Sensoa<br />
include the catchy strapline: ‘Because a good chat<br />
makes for good sex’. Poster headlines are sexy and<br />
funny, for example:<br />
‘ Oral, vaginal, anal. And verbal?’<br />
‘ Kissing, licking, biting, sucking. You can also use<br />
your mouth for speaking.’<br />
A television advertisement for the campaign<br />
features a deaf man and woman, half-clothed in a<br />
dimly lit kitchen. When he starts to take off her bra,<br />
she uses sign language (with subtitles) to say that<br />
there are a lot more places she’d like to be kissed,<br />
making it clear to her partner what she likes, and<br />
delaying intercourse in favour of non-penetrative<br />
delights. The spot ends with the slogan: ‘They can<br />
talk about it. So can you.’ (See the English version<br />
of the TV spot here: http://sensoa.be/en/illustraties/<br />
praat_over_seks/spotje_engels.mpg).<br />
Talk about sex! was set up based on a method<br />
called Intervention Mapping, a scientifically<br />
developed model for health promotion. The<br />
organization made an explicit choice for its materials<br />
to actually show people making love – “from a first<br />
deep kiss to more advanced stages of intimacy”,<br />
explains Sensoa’s website. And it chose to work with<br />
real people rather than with professional models.<br />
“The design is so strong because there is actually<br />
nothing explicitly shown (except for a woman’s<br />
breast or part of a buttock).” This was intended to<br />
undercut the criticism that the campaign could<br />
generate. The website goes on to explain: “It is<br />
not a campaign about (promoting) anonymous<br />
sex, it is about sexuality and the focus is on respect<br />
for each other. It considers sexuality as a form<br />
of development, in which people respect and<br />
recognize each other’s limits and wishes. And there<br />
is only one ‘right’ way to know these limits: Talk<br />
about sex!”<br />
However controversial the design of the campaign,<br />
Sensoa provided a thorough justification for<br />
it, with background information and easily<br />
downloadable PDF files with information about<br />
HIV, STIs, sexual abuse and unwanted pregnancy<br />
on the organization’s website. Also, the website<br />
The spot ends with the slogan: ‘They can talk about<br />
it. So can you.’<br />
© Sensoa<br />
63
X:Talk Project<br />
Talking the language of lust<br />
Contact Ava Caradonna<br />
X:Talk Project<br />
Tel +44 7914 703 372<br />
Email xtalk.classes@googlemail.com<br />
Web www.xtalkproject.net<br />
We teach different language tools that sex<br />
workers can use to insist on condom use, but<br />
also to propose alternative services if needed,<br />
for example, ‘I don’t do anal, but I do this...’ ”<br />
Ava Caradonna – X:Talk Project<br />
The X:Talk Project is an organization made up of<br />
current and former sex workers who provide English<br />
language training to sex workers in and around<br />
London, UK. It aims to ensure that the voices of sex<br />
workers are heard “with our clients, with our bosses<br />
and with each other”, and that sex workers who are<br />
not native English speakers are able to do their work<br />
safely and effectively.<br />
“The kind of language we teach relates to sex<br />
workers’ jobs, including how to negotiate safe sex<br />
and tell clients that safe sex is needed,” explained<br />
X:Talk’s language instructor, Ava Caradonna. “We<br />
teach different language tools that sex workers can<br />
use to insist on condom use, but also to propose<br />
alternative services if needed, for example, ‘I don’t<br />
do anal, but I do this...’ ”<br />
X:Talk’s aim is not to force workers to exit the sex<br />
industry, but instead to enable them to make<br />
informed choices about their lives and work. Often,<br />
learning English enables migrants who work in the<br />
sex industry the option to find other work if they want<br />
to. But they don’t preach or advise against sex work<br />
in any way.<br />
“We ran the pilot course last year, in May [2007],<br />
and advertised it to all sex workers, but in the end,<br />
only women and one female transsexual sex worker<br />
attended,” said Caradonna. This turned out to be<br />
a good thing because it meant the project could<br />
create a confidential space – at a women’s sexual<br />
health clinic – and focus on the language women sex<br />
workers need to know to do their jobs. Future classes<br />
will be planned for both men and women who sell<br />
sex, because “the language is specific regarding the<br />
different services men and women offer.”<br />
Beginner and intermediate classes were scheduled<br />
for early 2008, but they were postponed due to low<br />
attendance – many sex workers said they did not<br />
attend because there is a strong political agenda in<br />
the UK at the moment that focuses on criminalizing<br />
sex work, and there have been frequent raids on<br />
brothels and other establishments, which is deterring<br />
sex workers from gathering. “’We didn’t come<br />
because we were scared’” was hat some people<br />
were telling us,” according to Caradonna.<br />
To overcome this climate of fear, X:Talk Project’s next<br />
round of classes will be advertised in such a way that<br />
it will be clear it is an independent organization, not<br />
affiliated with the Government, and they will host a<br />
two-day ‘open house’ event at a public place, where<br />
people can meet the organizers and enrol in classes.<br />
X:Talk’s instructor stressed the importance of<br />
confidentiality when providing services to people in<br />
the sex industry, even in countries where sex work is<br />
not criminalized. They even use a fictitious contact<br />
name (Ava Caradonna) as the contact for their<br />
project, which provides the people working with<br />
X:Talk a measure of privacy and safety.<br />
64
We talked about ways that she could re-check<br />
the condom that wouldn’t break the intensity of the<br />
interaction she was having with her partner – in other<br />
words, incorporating it as part of the sex play.”<br />
a sex worker counsellor, St. James Infirmary, USA<br />
counselling<br />
and health<br />
services<br />
65
Planned Parenthood of New York City<br />
Don’t forget the pleasure!<br />
Contact Randa Dean or Amanda Perez<br />
Planned Parenthood of New York City<br />
26 Bleecker Street<br />
New York, NY 10012-2413, USA<br />
Tel +1 212 274 7200<br />
Randa Dean +1 212 274 7362<br />
Amanda Perez +1 212 274 7336<br />
Fax +1 212 274 7218<br />
Web www.plannedparenthood.org/nyc<br />
People walked away saying they know pleasure<br />
is important – that is why people have sex – but<br />
beforehand they didn’t know how to do it. Now they did.”<br />
Randa Dean, Associate Director of Adult Education at PPNYC<br />
Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC)<br />
provides reproductive health care, education<br />
programmes and advocacy on sexual and<br />
reproductive health issues. In 2007 and 2008, they<br />
facilitated two one-day workshops entitled ‘Don’t<br />
Forget the Pleasure in Sex Education’ at the PPNYC<br />
Training Institute, the organization’s outreach centre.<br />
Designed for health service providers, sex educators,<br />
youth providers, sex therapists and interested adults,<br />
the workshops covered topics such as:<br />
• What holds us back from pleasure? This includes<br />
research about how talking about pleasure<br />
fosters sexual pleasure and is related to better<br />
use of protection; arguments for and against;<br />
pleasure as a right, and as an integral part of the<br />
‘sexuality pie’.<br />
• Non-orgasm pleasure: consideration of all the kinds<br />
of behaviours that are pleasurable, not just orgasm.<br />
• Sexual anatomy and pleasure zones: ‘If you know<br />
more about your body, you will have more pleasure’.<br />
• Age-appropriate pleasure messages: participants<br />
were given scenarios to act out and the ages of<br />
the characters; facilitators helped them to provide<br />
messages that include pleasure components.<br />
• Sexual enhancers: from condoms to lubes, cock<br />
rings to vibrators, this involved discussion of the<br />
many sex accessories – those that are safe,<br />
and those that are less safe. This included a<br />
presentation from a visiting expert from womanfriendly<br />
sex toy shop, Babeland.<br />
• Partner communication: using the 3Ps – pleasure,<br />
protection and problems.<br />
• The Sexual History Talk: clarifying worries that<br />
could decrease pleasure, and six tips for<br />
facilitating conversations about pleasure.<br />
• Advice for Educators: participants received a<br />
Workshop Formula which identified the aspects<br />
of a good pleasure-focused workshop, such as<br />
pleasure as a right, education about the body,<br />
realistic and affirming messages, information<br />
about sex and disabilities, and understanding<br />
the language of the group.<br />
According to Randa Dean, Associate Director of<br />
Adult Education at PPNYC, “The participants at<br />
the workshops were professional health and sex<br />
education providers who said no one else was<br />
talking about this. They were all eager … and the<br />
evaluations were very positive … People walked<br />
away saying they know pleasure is important – that<br />
is why people have sex – but beforehand they didn’t<br />
know how to do it. Now they did.”<br />
Dean said the participants were asked how they would<br />
implement what they had learned, and everyone<br />
gave very specific examples of what they would do,<br />
for example, if a client said she or he does not like a<br />
condom or lubricant, they would include information<br />
about different lubes and condoms to enhance<br />
pleasure as an alternative. However, some participants<br />
said it was difficult to find different kinds of condoms<br />
in the Bronx and Brooklyn areas of New York City, so<br />
PPNYC staff are investigating sources for condoms and<br />
plan to provide feedback to the participants.<br />
When asked how sexual health counsellors and<br />
educators can get people talking about sex and<br />
pleasure, Dean noted that PPNYC’s adult role<br />
models (ARMs) and sex educators said they were<br />
initially uncomfortable with the pleasure piece of<br />
the ‘sexuality pie’. But after training, they felt more<br />
comfortable and said they had a lot of tidbits (facts,<br />
phrases and examples) about pleasure which they<br />
could incorporate into their sexual health messages.<br />
66
Positively Women<br />
Sexy tips for HIV-positive women<br />
Contact Lucy Osman<br />
Positively Women<br />
347–349 City Road<br />
London, UK<br />
EC1V 1LR<br />
Tel +44 20 7713 0444<br />
Email losman@positivelywomen.org.uk<br />
Web www.positivelywomen.org.uk<br />
Positively Women magazine has taken steps to<br />
address the serious lack of information available to<br />
HIV-positive women about sex and sexuality after<br />
a positive diagnosis. It has featured articles and a<br />
cut-out-and-keep postcard about sexy tips for HIVpositive<br />
women, written by The Pleasure Project,<br />
which talked about ways to make condoms and<br />
non-penetrative sex feel sexy and fun.<br />
Positively Women is a national charity working in the<br />
UK to improve the quality of life of women and families<br />
affected by HIV. It provides free services to HIV-positive<br />
women, such as one-to-one support and counselling,<br />
HIV immigration support and legal advice, support for<br />
families and children, and access to support groups<br />
which are run by HIV-positive women.<br />
It also publishes a quarterly magazine called<br />
Positively Women. Written and edited by women<br />
living with HIV, it has an estimated global circulation<br />
of nearly 10,000 beneficiaries, health care<br />
professionals, clinics and other HIV organizations.<br />
Each magazine includes personal testimony,<br />
features, information, and a forum for debate.<br />
Positively Women magazine has taken steps to<br />
address the serious lack of information available to<br />
HIV-positive women about sex and sexuality after<br />
a positive diagnosis. It has featured articles and a<br />
cut-out-and-keep postcard about sexy tips for HIVpositive<br />
women, written by The Pleasure Project,<br />
which talked about ways to make condoms and<br />
non-penetrative sex feel sexy and fun.<br />
In addition, to enable its counsellors to better<br />
promote the female condom to HIV-positive women<br />
– particularly to African women living in London –<br />
Positively Women partnered with the Female Health<br />
Company (see page 34) and The Pleasure Project for<br />
a ‘Pleasures of the Female Condom’ training day. The<br />
counsellors participated in a number of exercises and<br />
discussions to help them learn how to teach women<br />
to insert and use the female condom, while promoting<br />
its pleasure benefits and learning skills for responding<br />
to any objections that men and women may have to<br />
it. During the training, a wide range of subjects related<br />
specifically to HIV-positive women’s needs were<br />
covered, including discussion of how to use the female<br />
condom when practicing a sex technique called<br />
‘western jazz’, and how women who have sex with<br />
women can enjoy the female condom.<br />
67
St. James Infirmary<br />
The sexy ‘dick check’ and<br />
other tips for sex workers<br />
Contact Alix Lutnick<br />
St James Infirmary<br />
1372 Mission Street<br />
San Francisco<br />
CA 94103<br />
USA<br />
Tel +1 415 554 8494<br />
Fax +1 415 554 8444<br />
Email alutnick@rti.org<br />
Web www.stjamesinfirmary.org<br />
...as providers, the dissemination of pleasure starts<br />
with us … We must encourage dialogue about<br />
pleasure and ways in which we can further it in all<br />
settings. And we must constantly be mindful of our<br />
words and actions in order to prevent the silencing<br />
and shaming of someone’s pleasure and sexuality.”<br />
a sex worker counsellor, St. James Infirmary, USA<br />
St. James Infirmary (SJI) provides free, confidential<br />
medical and social services to female, transgendered<br />
and male sex workers in San Francisco, California,<br />
USA. It is the first occupational safety and health clinic<br />
for sex workers that is run by sex workers. According<br />
to SJI’s Research Coordinator Alix Lutnick, “Only when<br />
people know what they do and do not like are they<br />
truly capable of saying yes or no to certain practices.<br />
Furthermore, once they know what brings them<br />
pleasure and potentially the reasons behind that,<br />
then we can explore with them ways in which they<br />
feel they could make what they are doing safer.”<br />
In its counselling sessions, SJI asks sex workers: “What<br />
do you like about the work you do? What gives you<br />
pleasure?” With this as a springboard, sex workers<br />
are encouraged to talk about all aspects of their<br />
work – what they like and don’t like, what they are<br />
willing to do and what they aren’t willing to do. This<br />
kind of discussion with qualified counsellors can then<br />
lead to conversations about how to do the work<br />
they do in the safest way possible.<br />
Its homepage asks: “Do you know how to put a<br />
condom on with your mouth? Can you make a<br />
‘dick check’ sexy? When’s the last time you got a<br />
massage just for you?” and other questions aimed<br />
at helping sex workers stay safe while still providing<br />
pleasure, and even finding pleasure themselves.<br />
To explain how SJI counsellors incorporate pleasure<br />
and eroticization of safer sex into their counselling<br />
with sex workers, Lutnick described an HIV/STI risk<br />
assessment session that took place a few years ago:<br />
“ The woman told me that the reason she came in<br />
was that a condom broke during a session with<br />
a client. It was very clear that she felt ashamed<br />
that this had happened, and it seemed as if she<br />
thought she was going to get a lecture! The very first<br />
question I asked her was whether she enjoyed the<br />
sex she had with that person or not. This question<br />
led her to admitting that she really did enjoy it, and<br />
then she proceeded to talk for at least ten minutes<br />
about what she enjoyed and why.”<br />
“After listening to her share her feelings about<br />
this experience, I suggested that she think<br />
about checking the condom every now and<br />
again during intercourse, and occasionally<br />
reapplying lube when she feels that the condom<br />
is becoming too dry. We talked about ways<br />
that she could re-check the condom that<br />
wouldn’t break the intensity of the interaction<br />
she was having with her partner – in other words,<br />
incorporating it as part of the sex play.”<br />
“At the end she thanked me for being the first<br />
person to talk to her about pleasure in the context<br />
of sex work. She said that, in the past, when she<br />
had gone to other service providers, they very<br />
clearly were uncomfortable with her talking about<br />
sexuality and pleasure in general, and especially<br />
as they relate to sex work. Those experiences<br />
silenced her and planted a seed of shame in her<br />
brain about the work she does. Fortunately, she<br />
came to SJI and we were able to provide her the<br />
space to explore her pleasures and dislikes.”<br />
One crucial element of SJI’s success with pleasurefocused<br />
counselling is that the counsellors are either<br />
former sex workers themselves or have undergone<br />
extensive training about what goes on in various sex<br />
68
work communities. “At St. James, we encourage<br />
our providers to check in with themselves about<br />
their comfort level talking about various issues.<br />
And if they feel the least bit uncomfortable about<br />
having certain conversations – if they know they<br />
cannot provide a client information that she or he<br />
needs in a comfortable, non-shaming fashion – we<br />
encourage them to refer the client to other providers<br />
at St. James.” This shame-free, peer-based element<br />
of SJI’s counselling is absolutely vital to their success<br />
in helping sex workers to open up about pleasure<br />
and to stay healthy.<br />
Lutnick says that “...as providers, the dissemination of<br />
pleasure starts with us. We must discover our comfort<br />
levels and find roles in which we utilize our skills most<br />
effectively. We must encourage dialogue about<br />
pleasure and ways in which we can further it in all<br />
settings. And we must constantly be mindful of our<br />
words and actions in order to prevent the silencing<br />
and shaming of someone’s pleasure and sexuality.”<br />
In addition to its counselling and health services,<br />
SJI does research. Its Sex Worker Environmental<br />
Assessment Team (SWEAT) study examined the<br />
correlation between social capital and the health<br />
of female sex workers in San Francisco. Conducted<br />
by the University of California, San Francisco, in<br />
collaboration with SJI, this study’s research staff was<br />
comprised of former and current sex workers. As<br />
part of the semi-structured interviews in the study,<br />
“...we asked all participants what they enjoy about<br />
the sex work they do, as well as what they do not<br />
enjoy. Initially a number of the women said there was<br />
nothing they enjoyed about the work that they do. As<br />
the interview continued, all but one of these women<br />
returned on their own to that question and offered<br />
specific things they did enjoy about their work. For<br />
many of the participants in this first phase, as well as<br />
in the second phase, this was either the first time they<br />
had ever spoken to another person about their sex<br />
work, or this was the first time they shared their story<br />
and were not met with judgments or shame.”<br />
Only when people know what they do and do not like<br />
are they truly capable of saying yes or no to certain<br />
practices. Furthermore, once they know what brings<br />
them pleasure and the reasons behind that, then we<br />
can explore ways in which they feel they could make<br />
what they are doing safer.”<br />
a sex worker counsellor, St. James Infirmary, USA<br />
69
TARSHI and the South and Southeast Asia<br />
Resource Centre on Sexuality<br />
The pleasure hotline<br />
Contact Radhika Chandiramani<br />
TARSHI<br />
11 Mathura Road, First Floor<br />
Jangpura – B<br />
New Delhi – 110014<br />
India<br />
Tel +91 11 2437 9070/71<br />
Email tarshi@vsnl.com<br />
Web www.tarshi.net and www.asiasrc.org<br />
TARSHI (Talking about Reproductive and Sexual<br />
Health Issues) is a New Delhi-based organization<br />
which develops publications, provides training,<br />
and undertakes advocacy work.<br />
Their publications include information about the<br />
right to sexual pleasure and well-being (such as the<br />
Red Book for 10–14-year-olds, and the Blue Book for<br />
young people 15 and older, which present sexuality<br />
in a matter-of-fact and sex-affirming language),<br />
while training includes a Sexuality and Rights Institute<br />
run in collaboration with CREA, Regional Institute on<br />
Sexuality Society and Culture, Basic and Regional<br />
Trainings on Sexuality, Sexual and Reproductive<br />
Health and Rights.<br />
TARSHI also operates a telephone helpline, where<br />
it provides information, counselling and referrals<br />
to address concerns about sexual pleasure and<br />
sexual health, in addition to queries on basic sex<br />
information, sexual, reproductive and relationship<br />
concerns. Its telephone counsellors often use<br />
questions about sexual concerns and pleasure as an<br />
entry point for further discussions of health behaviour,<br />
including safer sex. TARSHI is guided by the vision that<br />
all people have a right to sexual well-being and to<br />
a self-affirming and enjoyable sexuality, even when<br />
practising safer sex. The helpline has responded to<br />
over 60,000 calls in its 12 years of operation since<br />
1996, and a report of the analysis of over 43,000 calls<br />
can be obtained at www.tarshi.net.<br />
In addition, TARSHI hosts the South and Southeast<br />
Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality, which is a diverse<br />
collection of sexuality-related work in the region,<br />
and publishes the quarterly publication In Plainspeak<br />
(www.asiasrc.org/plSpk/inplainspeak.asp).<br />
TARSHI is guided by the vision that all people have a<br />
right to sexual well-being and to a self-affirming and<br />
enjoyable sexuality, even when practising safer sex.<br />
70
Silom Community Clinic,<br />
Thailand Ministry of Public Health and US<br />
Centers for Disease Control<br />
Scorching hot condom and lube<br />
for male-to-male sex<br />
Contact Frits van Griensven or<br />
Wipas Wimonsate<br />
Silom Community Clinic<br />
Email silom@tuc.or.th<br />
Web www.silomclinic.in.th<br />
The [condom] packaging is in both Thai and<br />
English, with graphics illustrating a temperature<br />
gauge that highlights just how hot sex needs to<br />
be before opening the condom packets.”<br />
The Thailand Ministry of Public Health and US Centres<br />
for Disease Control (CDC) have collaborated to<br />
conduct a longitudinal cohort study among men<br />
who have sex with men in Bangkok, and are now<br />
planning for HIV prevention trials in this population.<br />
As part of their work, they have developed fun and<br />
innovative packaging for a condom/lube product<br />
and other safer-sex education tools that treat sex<br />
in a positive and sexy way. Along with the Silom<br />
Community Clinic in Bangkok, they have created<br />
and are distributing condom packaging with<br />
messages such as ‘To Cook: remove plastic cover<br />
and put in high heat for 3–4 minutes; recommended<br />
serving size 52mm’ and ‘Careful, the package you<br />
are about to enjoy is extremely hot’.<br />
The packaging is in both Thai and English, with<br />
graphics illustrating a temperature gauge that<br />
highlights just how hot sex needs to be before<br />
opening the condom packets. The packets are in<br />
stylist black, to appeal to men. Silom Clinic is located<br />
inside the Bangkok Christian Hospital, and provides<br />
free HIV testing and counselling for men who have<br />
sex with men.<br />
71
One client described the inserted female condom as<br />
a ‘blooming lotus flower’, while others agreed to pay<br />
[sex workers] more to be allowed to insert the female<br />
condom into the woman’s vagina.”<br />
from the Community Development Service’s female condom acceptability trial, Sri Lanka<br />
advocacy<br />
and support<br />
72
Community Development Services<br />
‘The blooming lotus flower’ and other<br />
female condom visions<br />
Contact Kamanee Hapugalle,<br />
Executive Director<br />
Community Development Services Tel +94 1 677 748, 697 731<br />
Email kamanee@eureka.lk<br />
Most recently, Community Development Services<br />
lobbied for pleasure as a key component of the 2007<br />
ICAAP conference in Colombo.<br />
Community Development Services (CDS) helps to<br />
developing community capacity to address sexual<br />
and reproductive health issues and concerns, and<br />
to promote health-seeking behaviours among<br />
populations most vulnerable to STIs and HIV in Sri<br />
Lanka. One of its many activities has been lobbying<br />
at many levels for sexual and reproductive health<br />
services and supplies for sex workers, which has<br />
included advocacy for the female condom and,<br />
in particular, its qualities of increased pleasure and<br />
comfort, female control and potential for providing<br />
increased income for sex workers.<br />
In 2001, CDS received a grant from UNAIDS to train<br />
and develop the capacity of 40 peer educators<br />
from the commercial sex worker community, with the<br />
objective of promoting health-seeking behaviours<br />
among street-based sex workers. This involved peer<br />
education, peer support and peer counselling,<br />
which would subsequently be developed into an<br />
independent project managed and implemented<br />
by leaders of the sex worker community. One<br />
component of this project was an acceptability trial<br />
of female condoms, which produced a variety of<br />
responses from the sex workers, but overall very high<br />
acceptability. Some sex workers found they could<br />
charge more money for using a female condom<br />
with a client by describing how it would turn the two<br />
of them on – with the friction of both rings and a lot<br />
of lube. One client described the inserted female<br />
condom as a ‘blooming lotus flower’, while others<br />
agreed to pay more to be allowed to insert the<br />
female condom into the woman’s vagina.<br />
Sexual health educators showing how they would<br />
demonstrate the female condom, at The Pleasure<br />
Project workshop, 2007 ICAAP, Sri Lanka<br />
CDS used the lessons learned from the acceptability<br />
trial to inform its advocacy work for female condoms<br />
and sex workers’ health and rights, nationally and<br />
internationally. Most recently, they lobbied for<br />
pleasure as a key component of the 2007 ICAAP<br />
conference in Colombo.<br />
73
The Institute of Development Studies<br />
Sexuality and Development Programme<br />
Helping the development industry get<br />
over its obsession with bad sex<br />
Contact Susie Jolly<br />
Institute of Development Studies<br />
University of Sussex<br />
Brighton, UK<br />
BN1 9RE<br />
Tel +44 1273 606261<br />
Fax +44 1273 621202 or 691647<br />
E-mail ids@ids.ac.uk<br />
Web www.ids.ac.uk/go/sexualityanddevelopment<br />
This work has elicited comments from some donors...<br />
But balancing donor desires with those of recipient<br />
organizations is often a challenge, in any programme.<br />
And working on sexuality and pleasure has not been<br />
more difficult than any other donor relationships.”<br />
Susie Jolly, Institute of Development Studies<br />
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) carries<br />
out research, teaching and communications<br />
work related to international development. It was<br />
founded in 1966 and has an international reputation<br />
for high-quality work and commitment to applying<br />
academic skills to real-world challenges. Its aim is<br />
to understand and explain the world, and to try to<br />
change it – to influence as well as to inform.<br />
In 2005, the IDS website (www.ids.ac.uk) featured<br />
an article entitled ‘The Power of Pleasure’, which<br />
marked World AIDS Day and urged a new approach<br />
to AIDS prevention that builds upon the positive<br />
force of desire and enjoyment rather than banking<br />
on fear and shame.<br />
In 2007, thanks to DFID support, IDS was able to<br />
launch its Sexuality and Development Programme,<br />
which supports research and communications<br />
aimed at rethinking the relationship between<br />
sexuality, rights and development, and building<br />
stronger links between people in different contexts<br />
working to realize sexual rights. The Programme<br />
supports organizations which are taking a sexpositive<br />
approach to prevention and sexual health,<br />
and innovative research which helps to build the<br />
evidence base for sex-positive, pleasure-focused<br />
work in many areas, including safer sex promotion.<br />
offer encouragement to people stigmatized for<br />
their sexualities, and recognition to individuals and<br />
organizations working for sexual freedom.<br />
Jolly has been pushing for sex-positivity in the<br />
development discourse since 1998, when she was<br />
a student at IDS. She said there have been some<br />
donors who are shocked at some of the pleasureand<br />
sexuality-oriented messages coming out of IDS,<br />
saying that sexuality and pleasure are not about<br />
poverty reduction. But she addresses these reactions<br />
by pointing out that poverty and sexuality are<br />
interconnected – discrimination around sexuality can<br />
cause poverty, and poverty can be an obstacle to<br />
realising sexual rights – and furthermore all people<br />
have a right to enjoy sex whatever their income level.<br />
“This work has elicited comments from some<br />
donors... But balancing donor desires with those<br />
of recipient organizations is often a challenge, in<br />
any programme. And working on sexuality and<br />
pleasure has not been more difficult than any other<br />
donor relationships.” Jolly’s 2007 article ‘Why the<br />
Development Industry Should Get Over its Obsession<br />
with Bad Sex and Start to Think About Pleasure’<br />
(IDS Working Paper 283, Brighton: IDS) deals with a<br />
wide variety of issues around pleasure, including the<br />
movement to eroticise safer sex.<br />
Also in 2007, the programme’s Director, Susie Jolly,<br />
won an Erotic Award for the BRIDGE Cutting Edge<br />
Pack on Sexuality and Development, which outlines<br />
key issues on gender, sexuality and sexual rights<br />
in the current political climate. The Erotic Awards<br />
were established in 1993 by the Leydig Trust to<br />
74
annex:<br />
list of interviewees<br />
contact organization country<br />
Shivananda Khan Naz Foundation International International/South Asia<br />
Alice Clements Marie Stopes Australia Australia<br />
Alice Welbourne Stepping Stones UK/International<br />
Alix Lutnick St. James Infirmary USA<br />
Angela Heimburger (formerly) IPPF Western Hemisphere USA/Latin America<br />
Anna Span Easy on the Eye Productions UK<br />
Anupam Hazra SAATHII India<br />
Anuradha Mukherjee The Naz Foundation (India) Trust India<br />
Ashok Row Kavi The Humsafar Trust India<br />
Ava Caradonna X:Talk Project UK<br />
Cheryl Overs Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers Australia<br />
Doortje Braeken IPPF UK/International<br />
Dorothy Aken’ Ova INCRESE Nigeria<br />
Edwina Pereira INSA India India<br />
Jasmir Thakur The Samabhavana Trust India<br />
Jaya Sharma Nirantar India<br />
Kavitha Potturi<br />
Hindustan Latex Limited Family<br />
Planning Promotion Trust (HLLFPPT)<br />
India<br />
Mike Kennedy Victorian AIDS Council Australia<br />
Nan Kinney Fatale Media USA<br />
Ngozi Iwere Community Life Project Nigeria<br />
Ofelia Aguilar MEXFAM Mexico<br />
Phillip Harvey DKT International International<br />
Randa Dean Planned Parenthood of New York City USA<br />
Reverend Debra Haffner<br />
Religious Institute on Sexual Morality,<br />
Justice, and Healing<br />
USA<br />
Richard Scholey Terrence Higgins Trust UK<br />
Robert Nelson Female Health Company UK/International<br />
Sarah Hedley Scarlet Magazine UK<br />
Sunil B Pant Blue Diamond Society Nepal<br />
Susie Jolly Institute for Development Studies UK<br />
Suzanne Noble Noble PR UK<br />
Telidja Klai SENSOA Belgium<br />
Tim Bavinton<br />
Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT<br />
(SHFPACT)<br />
Australia<br />
Tim Foskett PACE UK<br />
Xiaopei He<br />
Pink Space Culture and<br />
Development Centre<br />
China<br />
75
The Pleasure Project (www.thepleasureproject.org) is an<br />
international education and advocacy organization working to<br />
eroticize safer sex by building bridges between the health sector<br />
and the sex world, and helping to develop the evidence base<br />
for a sex-positive approach to safer sex. It promotes sexual health<br />
and prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, by<br />
encouraging sex education with an emphasis on ‘good sex’, and<br />
by focusing on one of the primary reasons people have sex –- the<br />
pursuit of pleasure.<br />
The Pleasure Project provides training, consultancy, research<br />
and publications for sexual health counsellors, NGOs and others<br />
who want to take a more sex-positive approach to their work,<br />
and it helps erotic media producers to incorporate sexy safersex<br />
into porn films and other media. The Pleasure Project was<br />
started in 2004 at the Bangkok AIDS Conference and since then<br />
has provided condom consultancy for erotic films and pleasure<br />
proficiency training for sex educators, and has mastered the art of<br />
erotic condom demonstration.<br />
Realising Rights is the Research Programme Consortium on Sexual<br />
and Reproductive Health and Rights, funded by the United<br />
Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID).<br />
It supports innovative research and advocacy approaches<br />
to address the persistent low priority given to sexual and<br />
reproductive health and rights in development policy and<br />
practice. The Consortium brings together a strong multidisciplinary<br />
research and service-delivery partnership to focus on commonly<br />
neglected issues, such as sexually transmitted infections,<br />
contraception, abortion and gender-based violence. And it<br />
works to translate sexual and reproductive health rights into local<br />
realities, particularly in low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa<br />
and South Asia. Its partners are:<br />
• African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi<br />
• BRAC and BRAC University School of Public Health, Bangladesh<br />
• INDEPTH Network, Accra and affiliated surveillance sites<br />
• Institute of Development Studies, UK (lead institution)<br />
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK